CITY AND SUBURBAN ROUND 2: CCNSW vs COLLEAGUES AT CAMPERDOWN OVAL, CAMPERDOWN ON SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER 2023: REPORT BY JAMIE MURTHA
Our first official home game got off to a great start with Jamie Murtha winning the toss and deciding to bat. Colleagues CC struck with a wicket in the first over, Jamie and Scott Williams got us back on track with a solid 48 run partnership before Jamie holed out to deep mid-wicket. Scott looked in good form, hitting back to back boundaries on a couple of occasions before being adjudged lbw.
A middle order collapse saw us in a lot of strife, but Henry Davis and debutant Kieren Purnell were able to dig in and rebuild. The pair worked the ball around, but Henry unfortunately strangled a ball down the leg side which sparked another collapse.
Ming Heng wacked a few nice fours to boost our score, but in the end we were all out for 134 with 8 overs remaining, (Ed note: This was a 40 over p. side game) short of our 160+ target. Our opposition fielded very well, preventing boundaries and building pressure, we had a few good partnerships starting, but couldn’t capitalise on those.
We took a break for tea and the CCNSW team put on a great spread, the opposition seemed quite surprised by it and grateful. John Shaw’s beef patties went down nice and Ming went all in with hot dogs in a slow cooker.
Needing 135 to win and having somewhere to be, Colleagues CC came out firing, they got off to a fast start. Jon Shaw found his line and length from his third over at the Rotunda end, he had the ball jagging away from the right handers and picked up two crucial wickets.
Despite the wickets, our opposition kept coming at us hard, determined to finish the game and head to the pub. This attacking style kept us in the game, Henry Davis’ leggies beat the outside edge twice giving Declan Thomas stumping opportunities, both of which he made look easy.
Adam Khamis with his own leggies targeted the stumps and took two wickets of his own.
We fielded well on the day, despite a few rough patches within the infield, and the guys never have up – we tried to take wickets right down to the last ball but unfortunately the opposition were able to chase down our total in the 26th over with four wickets in hand.
Still plenty of positives to take away from the game, with a few more runs on the board and our strong bowling attack could have won it for us on the day.
Now we look ahead to JPS round 1 against the Reg Bartley XI next Sunday 22nd October.
The Team was: – Gerard O’Shea 1, Jamie Murtha (c) 10, Scott Williams 37, Alex Cumming 10, Declan Thomas (w) 4, Henry Davis 24, Len Volkov 0, Kieren Purnell 16, Ming Heng 17, Jonathan Shaw 1 Adam Khamis 2*
The Result was: –
C.C.N.S.W.: – 10-134 (31.2 Overs) (S. Williams 37)
Lost to
Colleagues: – 6-141 (25.1 Overs)
By 4 wickets
FoWs: – 1-2 (G. O’Shea); 2-49 (J. Murtha); 3-51 (S. Williams); 4-64 (A. Cumming); 5-67 (D. Thomas); 6-71 (L. Volkov); 7-105 (H. Davis); 8-127 (M. Heng); 9-131 (J. Shaw);10-134 (K. Purnell).
The Bowling was: – J. Shaw 5-1-21-2; M. Heng 4-0-22-0; A. Khamis 6.1-1-28-2, H. Davis 4-0-33-2; S. Williams 3-0-15-0; K. Purnell 3-1-19-0
The Fielding was: –
Stumpings: – 2 to D. Thomas
Catches: – One to G. O’Shea
Run outs: – Nil
Player points (awarded by captain): 3 points to H. Davis; 2 points to J. Shaw; one point to A. Khamis
MASTERS ROUND 2: CCNSW vs ROSEVILLE AT TURRAMURRA MEMORIAL PARK, TURRAMURRA, ON SUNDAY 15 OCTOBER 2023: REPORT BY BEN STANIC
Round 2 for the 2023-2024 season saw the CCNSW Masters team venture out to Turramurra to take on a strong Roseville team. Captain Dan Turner on seeing a questionable pitch on arrival elected to bowl first after successfully winning the toss in the hope that the pitch could provide some assistance to the bowlers.
From the outset it was clear the pitch would play fine, and the Roseville batsmen were keen to play aggressively and not let the CCNSW attack settle into a groove. Despite runs flowing freely, CCNSW were able to get an early breakthrough in the third over when one of the Roseville openers played a false shot with the ball popping up to short mid-wicket where for the second match running Jose Poothokaren made good ground to take a tricky catch to earn our first wicket.
From that point on however, the Roseville batsmen were well on top with their other opener as well as batsmen 3 and 4 retiring and taking their team to an imposing 1-123 after 20 overs at drinks. Things were looking a little dire at drinks with a score in the 300s even a possibility the way the Roseville batsmen were striking the ball.
Thankfully, Paul Nash and Jose Poothokaren were able to pick up a middle order wicket each and Ben Stanic was able to bowl the number 9 late in the innings to stem the flow of runs a little, but not before another of the Roseville middle order (their 4th for the innings) managed to get to retirement and take their total to 4-260 after their allotted 40 overs. CCNSW were happy to get out of the sun and off a challenging Turramurra outfield which provided some awkward fielding moments including the need to avoid swarms of insects (that appeared to be bees) constantly flying into us in the last 5 to 10 overs of the Roseville innings!
In the innings break, the Roseville team provided barbecued sausage sandwiches for all to enjoy, perhaps hoping this would cause the CCNSW batsmen to be a little sluggish on the return to play. CCNSW Masters knew we had to bat well to chase down the challenging total of 261 and perhaps the barbecue sausages played their part, as it was noticeable that our innings consisted of a lot of boundaries and less running between the wickets when compared to other games we have been involved in.
At the start of the innings Tom Robertson and Jason Kenn got us off to a good start, approaching things in the same attacking manner that the Roseville batsmen did, before the Roseville opening bowler settled into his rhythm and managed to sneak one through Jason’s defences to take their first wicket in the 5th over. Following that early setback, Paul Nash, Andrew Dadswell and Scott Wells all came and went relatively quickly and all for the identical score of 4 to leave CCNSW at the precarious position of 4-86 after 17 overs.
However, despite the wickets falling at the other end, Tom kept going with his usual swashbuckling style, never letting the Roseville bowlers dictate terms to him and quickly moved to 41* and a well- earned retirement. This left Dan and Jose to form a great partnership which took us to 4-110 at drinks and onto 133 in the 24th over before Dan was unfortunately undone for a well-made 31 whilst trying to keep the run rate ticking over.
Soon after, Jose fell agonisingly short of his own retirement milestone on 37 when going for one last hefty blow he was unfortunately bowled. After that, debutant Chinmay Trivedi, Ben Stanic and David Abreu all came and went quickly, all caught off the Roseville spinner, whilst trying to keep the runs flowing. This brought Tom back to the crease to join Mick Tarrant who had been watching the carnage unfold from the non-striker’s end. Mick and Tom then went on to push our score from 164 to 201 with a great last wicket partnership before Tom was ultimately dismissed on 62, caught on the straight boundary looking to keep our faint hopes of an unlikely victory alive, leaving Micky stranded on a quality 22*.
Our innings was also highlighted by a local kid deciding that running through a live cricket match to get to the other side of Turramurra oval was the quickest way to get to the other side, despite the obvious dangers of getting hit by a leather cricket ball. This was complimented by another Turramurra local (perhaps the kid’s mum) attempting to stroll out into the outfield to commence her regular Sunday afternoon laps despite the live game of cricket going on at the time. She at least provided some comic relief when informed she could not enter the oval while a live cricket game was in play for her own safety, when she with a straight face responded that the oval was a public place and clearly the cricket game had to end immediately so that her and other residents could use the oval. Thankfully, Tom was around and able to use his extensive diplomatic skills and inform the lady that the game would not be finished for quite some time, and she could run around the outside of the oval and call the local council if she was not happy with the outcome. The whole episode making us grateful for the fact that at Camperdown we simply need to shoo away several families having picnics on the oval before we start our home games!
But back to the cricket; overall, this game was a reminder that we are in Division 1 of the Masters competition this season and there will be no easy matches as we will be facing quality opposition every match. Although it was a tough day out for the bowling attack with us only managing to snare 4 Roseville wickets and leaking 260 runs, it was encouraging that our batting line up was able to score over 200 runs in the chase (spearheaded by a great innings from Tom).
We will no doubt be looking forward to a rematch with Roseville next season to attempt to avenge this defeat, especially given at the end of the match they decided to stay in their own dressing room with their own beers completely avoiding and ignoring the CCNSW Masters team much to the annoyance of captain Dan Turner and our team. Pretty poor form from them in our view given the game was played in highly respectful spirit without any conflict, disputes, or heckling.
The Team was: – Jason Kenn 8, Tom Robertson 62, Paul Nash 4, Andrew Dadswell 4, Scott Wells (w) 4, Dan Turner 31, Jose Poothokaren 37, Mick Tarrant 22*, Chinmay Trivedi 4, Ben Stanic 0 , David Abreu 2,
The Result was: –
Roseville CC.: – 4-260 (40 Overs)
Defeated
C.C.N.S.W.: – 10-201 (37.5 Overs) (T. Robertson 62)
By 59 runs
FoWs: – 1-18 (J. Kenn); 2-39 (P. Nash); 3-45 (A. Dadswell); 4-86 (S. Wells); 5-133 (D. Turner); 6-148 (J. Poothokaren); 7-158 (C. Trivedi); 8-158 (B. Stanic); 9-164 (D. Abreu); 10-201 T. Robertson.
The Bowling was: – B. Stanic 7-0-44-2; A. Dadswell 5-0-27-0; M. Tarrant 8-0-43-0; D. Abreu 4-0-26-0; C. Travedi 1-0-8-0; J. Poothokaren; 9-0-61-1 P. Nash 4-0-28-1; J. Kenn 2-0-14-0
The Fielding was: –
Stumpings: – Nil
Catches: – One each to J. Poothokaren and D. Turner
Run outs: – Nil
Player points (awarded by umpire): 3 points to T. Robertson; 2 points to M. Tarrant; one point to J. Poothokaren