C&S JACK PACE ROUND 1 v COLLEAGUES CC AT CAMPERDOWN OVAL, CAMPERDOWN ON SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2022: REPORT BY JIM HADLEY
CCNSW won the toss and Bowled. Arvi Bhandari and new ball partner Nimesh Desai ( “Fifty”) formed a great contrasting style of new ball bowling. Fifty held consistent pace and line for his 7 overs and Arvi held a nagging length of outswingers and off cutters, backed up by good catches by Williams and Murtha. Colleagues were 5-40 after 14 overs. Colleagues decided slogging was the best response and with the help of some dropped catches moved into the 90s until spin got rid of their cowboy. Nick Leong and Big Sooz (Soren Hughes) bowled a consistent line and length and finished off Colleagues, all out for 138. A shakey start in the run chase had Tom Robertson out chasing a wide one and Scott bowled by a good one through the gate. Harry Bridge and Jamie Murtha pushed the game along till Harry was judged LBW. Colleagues opening left arm seamer was proving a handful so Nick Leong “night watched” his spell skilfully through to enable Jamie Murtha (30 odd) and eventually Arvi Bhandari (20 odd n/o) to get CCNSW home with a few overs to spare. Good but patchy win highlighted by a top spell by both opening bowlers. Bhandari 3, Fifty 2, Murtha 1.
Scores to come.
Player points (awarded by captain): – 3 points to Arvi Bhandari; 2 points to Nimesh Desai ; 1 point to Jamie Murtha
CLASSICS ROUND 2 v SRI LANKA LIONS AT BERT SAUNDERS RESERVE, DOONSIDE ON SUNDAY 16 OCTOBER 2022: REPORT BY SCOTT WELLS
With 20 odd players available for selection this year, choosing a side against last year’s reigning champions was going to be a good headache to have. Unfortunately, with a 60’s tournament in the ensuing week and a few N/As it made the job slightly easier.
Initially the game was down for Camperdown but with the Camperdown square resembling a boggy top dressed lawn, an early call out for an alternate ground commenced. It appears this season in particular, turf wickets will be a premium on Sundays with the mix of a wet winter and junior rep and girls cricket expanding to turf wickets on a weekend.
After discussions with the Prez, several councils, Gordon CC and the Lions, they ended up finding a ground at Doonside albeit a synthetic wicket which at least guaranteed a game with a grim weather forecast earlier in the week.
Back to selections, we had 12 chosen with spares available. By Friday night, we had 10 available with both Mikes pulling out. By then some spares had also made other plans but we ended up with still a very strong 11 showing the great depth in the club at present. SLL also had some injury concerns with two of their top players not playing which gave us a great chance of knocking them off.
With afternoon showers expected and wanting to control the game should it be shortened, Wells won the toss and sent the Lions in.
Paul Devaney took the new cherry with 4 LBW shouts in the first over all very close and all turned down against their left hander. Mick Tarrant took the ball from the other end and both started with some great line and length and swing beating the bat and finding edges with flew into gaps regularly. Mick in particular very unlucky with their lefty not scoring a run in front of the wicket. By the 10th over they had gotten off to a bit of a flier with the other opener batting solid and quickly. A change in the bowling was made with both Ed Cross and Brett James coming on. Brett sporting a side strain off his shorter run.
A retirement and wicket finally came in the 13th over with both bowlers keeping it tight building pressure. Ed picking up an LBW and Brett picking up wickets either side of drinks. By drinks SLL were 2 for 88 so that was a pretty good result. The next 5 overs were critical
David Craig entered the attack with his leg spinners but unfortunately an earlier (superb) fielding effort left his right shoulder (good one) worse for wear. So with both Brett and Dave unable to bowl Paul Nash and Craig Kitson continued the attack with great line and length frustrating the Lions batters. A mixture of some very good shots and some loose ones saw runs and wickets continue – 4 for 125 with 10 to go. Craig Kitson picking up 4 wickets in 7 overs. With two batters in the bank they were keen to get them back in for the final overs.
Wickets were shared with all bowlers bowling well – Cross 1, James 2 and Kitson 4 but that’s not a reflection on how well Tarrant, Devaney and Nash bowled.
The opening bowlers returned to close out the innings with SLL finishing off their innings at 182. A gettable target with the batting depth we had.
Lions opening bowler Wark, known for his guile and metronomic wicket taking ability was always going to be a threat early. Little was known about the rest of their attack as we haven’t played them for at least three seasons due to washouts.
Ian Allmey and Gerard O’Shea like Oscar and Felix opened the batting. Felix there to blunt their opening attack. Unfortunately Wark found the shoulder of Allmey’s bat second ball which bought an early entry for Nash. Both batters feeling their way through the guile of Wark and spin of sorts from the other end. Nashy final getting going but no sooner hit one straight to mid wicket departing on 10 (16).
O’Shea at the other end was looking very solid and stylish but still not off the mark after almost 30 balls. Andrew Davis joined Gerry at the crease with both batsmen very cautious unable to penetrate the infield. We were 2 for 29 after 15 overs when a misunderstanding lead to a runout 12 (45). With the need to get cracking, Brett James was sent in to get the innings started. Unfortunately, Brett got a very good ball cutting back in first deliver for an LBW.
This bought Scott Wells to the crease and with Andrew Davis, started to penetrate the infield and coupled with some hard running between the wickets the scoreboard stated to tick over. 4 for 45 at drinks. Not impossible with the batting still to come – 7 an over but still a shift in momentum required. Opening bowler Wark finishing with 2 for 12 off 9 overs.
Post drinks, Wells started to take to the bowlers which saw more outfielders being dispatched making it difficult to get boundaries. Davis attempted to start hitting but came unstuck with 17 (50). Kitson started very confidently with a 6 over long off from his second delivery and the runs continued to flow with Wells retiring on 30 bringing Ed Cross to the crease. Both batters kept very busy running with a deep field set before Kitson holed out at long on for a well made 12 (12). In the 30th over we were 6 down for 94 leaving 9 an over off the last 10. The last 3 batters Tarrant, Devaney and Craig couldn’t find the boundary with 5 men out but still kept it ticking over. 13(11), 11(13) and 1(4) respectively. Wells returned with 2 overs to go and finished with 43*(43) and Ed 16*(30)
Upon reflection, we bowled well, batted solidly, ground fielding was great, put down a few half chances but we needed to pace ourselves a bit better earlier but with the loss of 3 of our top 5 cheaply and runs hard to come by made the task all that more difficult. We certainly didn?t disgrace ourselves and gave it a good shot but unfortunately things didn’t come our way in the field and we found it difficult to penetrate the good Lions fielding which left us short of the total.
The Team was: –
Ian Allmey 0, Gerard O’Shea 12, Paul Nash 10, Andrew Davis 17, Brett James 0, Scott Wells(c,wk) 43*, Craig Kitson 12, Ed Cross 16*, Michael Tarrant 13, Paul Devaney 11, David Craig 1
The Result was:
C.C.N.S.W.: 9-146 (40 overs)
Lost to:
Sri Lankan Lions: – 7-179 (40 overs)
By 33 runs
FoW: – 1-0 (Allmey); 2- 11(Nash); 3-32 (O’Shea); 4-32 (James). 5-71 (Davis); 6-78 (Kitson); 7-109 (Tarrant); 8-126 (Devaney).; 9-129 (Craig)
The Bowling was: –
Paul Devaney 9-0-49-0, Michael Tarrant 7-0-30-0, Ed Cross 7-1-32-1, David Craig 1-0-3-0, Brett James 4-2-7-2, Paul Nash 5-0-26-0, Craig Kitson 7-0-33-4
The Fielding was: –
Stumpings: None
Catches: tbc
Run outs: None
Player points (awarded by umpire): – 3 points to Scott Wells; 2 points to Craig Kitson ; 1 point to Andrew Davis