Round 4 Match Reports v Penrith + Metro (Day 1)
MATCH REPORTS (Liam ‘LJ’ O’Loughlin)
1st to 5th Grades – Round 4 v Penrith (2-Day Matches) Day 1
Metropolitan Cup – RPC Gold v Mosman & RPC Green v Penrith
Lefand Group 1st Grade @ Howell Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 7/430 (J Sangha 138, D Bell-Drummond 93, R Ayre 73*)
A sensational day away from home for the Randy Petes against Penrith, scoring the club’s second-highest score ever with 7/430. We lost a wicket early when Affleck departed, but after that it was all systems go.
In his return match, English star Daniel Bell-Drummond (93) fell agonisingly short of a century, but blasted 17 fours and a six in his stunning innings. But skipper Jason Sangha (138) wasn’t going to face the same fate, and he continued his strong form with a blistering century that included 17 fours and three sixes in an innings that lasted just over four hours.
Daniel Sams (46) made a fantastic cameo in the middle order before Riley Ayre (73*) entered and produced a fantastic innings that could possibly continue into day two. Adam Semple (25*) faced just 12 balls but managed to hit one four and two horns before the day finished.
It will be an interesting second day of play after we posted such a massive total, and the bowlers will be ready to rip in once they get their chance to shine.
Sutton City 2nd Grade @ Coogee Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 1/20 v Penrith 348 (L Radford 6/42)
Penrith won the toss and chose to bat, getting away with a few early boundaries, until Radford and Hemphrey shared 3 quick ones to leave them reeling at 3-38.
From here and in classic Coogee Oval style, the deck flattened out into a road which the Penrith middle order made the most of. This combined with 6 dropped catches and a lightning fast outfield locked us in for a tough afternoon of chasing leather. Special credit to Radford with 6-42 showing his ability to attack in short sharp bursts. Tom McKenzie also showed some great character putting his hand up to bowl into a tough wind and jagging a few well-deserved wickets in the middle overs.
With 3 overs to bat we finished 1-20 in pursuit of 349. The boys will need to dig deep on Saturday but with the batting depth in this side we’re still a good chance of taking the points.
Petersham RSL 3rd Grade @ Bill Ball Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 188 (R Sachs 71) v Penrith 0/35
Third Grade fought their way through the multitude of Sydney’s western roads and toll links on their way to Bill Ball Oval to take on Penrith as they searched for their first win of the season. Ben Stares won the toss and elected to bat and with hot conditions forecast, the top 6 were looking to bat long and keep the Panthers in the field as long as possible.
Stares (32) and Ben Montedoro were solid early and took the score to 31 before Montedoro was dismissed and Ross Elliot followed soon after. Once again, a failure to build partnerships through a regular loss of wickets was the undoing of the Third Grade line-up. Stares was dismissed and at tea the Randy Petes were 4/91 and looking to capitalise in the second session. Unfortunately, Jackson Eldridge (32) was dismissed third ball after the break and another quick wicket saw us stumble to 6/92 with a lot of time left in the day.
However Reuben Sachs (71) looked to play a lone hand and began to dominate the Penrith attack with drives through the offside and strong sweeping against the spinners. He was out after a great knock and soon after so was the Randwick Petersham innings, all out for 188.
Sixteen overs to bowl was enough to make headway into the Penrith order, however despite good bowling, a few missed chances saw Penrith make their way to 0/35. Early wickets will be the key for Randwick Petersham in a big first hour of play next week.
Mellick Wealth Management 4th Grade @ Kensington Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 136 (A Hussain 27) v Penrith 1/48 (R Miskella 1/9)
After a hard-fought draw on the road against Gordon in Round 3, it was back to Kenso for a chance to get another win and really kickstart the season. And on a day that had plenty of promise, it ended up being a pretty disappointing one.
Batting first, the Randy Petes looked solid and batsmen 2 through 7 all made starts – but nobody could kick on with it. Akhter Hussain (27) top scored, while Neale Crawford and Ryan Miskella both made 24. But once ‘Giggsy’ departed, the collapse came and we somehow lost the last five wickets for ZERO runs.
We had 28 overs to bowl at the end of the day and after a strong start from Miskella (1/9) and Lewis Barnes (0/17), we could have made some headway in their top order. But the Penrith batsmen were solid and finished the day 1/48.
The Randy Petes will have a massive job on their hands and the first hour of play on day two will be crucial to deciding our fate.
Bendigo Clovelly Community Bank 5th Grade @ Rance Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 2/10 v Penrith 9/303 (dec) (W Deller 3/29)
RPC lost the toss and as expected Penrith elected to bat on what predicated a warm day in the mid 30’s. However, there were divets and a bit of grass on the wicket that kept the bowlers interested and if the bowlers kept the ball up to the batsmen there could be some deviation and uneven bounce.
Anis Bugti (1/57) and Ben Thomas (2/38) opened the bowling and put the ball in the correct areas and were really unlucky not claim early wickets as the batsman played and missed several times thanks to the deviation off the wicket.
Will Deller (3/29) was brought on 1st change and struck immediately and was well rewarded with 3 wickets for his disciplined bowling. Spinners Pratulya Kashyap (0/62), Ryan Connolly (0/22) worked hard bowling into the wind and although there was slow drift and the ball was holding up they unfortunately could not tie the Penrith batsman down who chanced their arm by sweeping, cutting and lofting the ball over the fence.
Leg spinner Haider Ali (2/34) bowled with guile mixing his googlies, leg breaks and top spinners and got rewards. Angus Beaumont (1/32) who was brought on just after tea bowled stump-to-stump and troubled the set Penrith batsmen who thought they could tee off. Ultimately Penrith declared at 303 for 9 and we had 12 overs to face.
Peter Iosifidis and Deakin Antaw opened the batting and batted resolutely until Peter was out in the 7th over. Night watchman Haider Ali defended resolutely but was unfortunately dismissed 4 balls before end of play. Angus Beaumont blocked out the remaining 4 four balls and a big relief for all.
Next week we need to bat, bat and bat all day.
Metropolitan Cup: Cartwright Insurance Green v Penrith @ Marrickville Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham Green 0/8 v Penrith 5/277 (dec) (E Khoo 2-56)
Green arrived to face the Riff at Marrickville. The toss was won and Penrith was invited to bat. The openers Osborne and Dharman bowled well with a few plays and misses and tough chances just out of hand. The first breakthrough came after the first drinks break courtesy of a mix up and a combined run out from Keith and Xu.
As the wicket flattened out Pingu (2-56) & Chaz (1-66) were introduced and bowled well in tandem. Pingu was the pick with 17 overs straight lowering the rate in the middle overs. The bowlers were rotated late in the innings and another two wickets fell as a push was made towards the declaration. The declaration came with 7 overs remaining with Osborne (8) and Xu (0) negotiating a tricky 5 overs to have the Greens heading into Day 2 0-8.
Metropolitan Cup: Titan Fitness Gold v Warringah @ Snape Park
Result: Randwick Petersham Gold 2/76 (A Shahid 51*) v Mosman 179 (S Sandhu 4/46, F Whalebone 2/19)
The last time that a Randwick Petersham team ventured into Balmoral, they managed to scrape through with a last over, last wicket thriller. Again bowling first, the returning Simran Sandhu pitched a perfect inswinger in the first over to castle the opener in the first over. From there, a combination of luck, enterprising batting and loose bowling had Mosman racing to 1/62 off 11 overs. After a rough start to season, it looked like another long day… until the talented Mosman number 3 clipped one off Freddy Whalebone (2/19) to the opportunely placed Jaspreet Gill. From there, Will Grills (1/12) took his first wicket for the club, followed by another from Freddy to peg back the whales at 4/68.
With the quicks flagging, the biggest spinning pair in Sydney put on a show, with Thanush ‘T-Man’ Gowda (2/22) and debutant Atharv ‘Big Man’ Ramakanth (0/29) making sure that Mosman weren’t able to get away. T-Man dismissed the skipper and was rewarded for guileful bowling with a caught behind. Mosman had a few lurkers down the order though, who once again started scoring freely. The returning Sandhu nabbed a couple before tea to have the hosts 8/168 at the break. Sandhu completed his 4-fer two balls after the break and would finish with 4/46 – including a second spell of 3/14 off 6. In his first game for the club since the 2015/16 season, Sunny Mehta finished off the innings with a brief but economical spell. Mosman’s 179 was the exact same score they made last season as well…
With 33 overs left, Ahsan Shahid and Grillsy set about laying the platform for next week. Grillsy was knocked over early, but Shahid made use of friendly batting conditions and bowlers that lacked stamina to drive the chase. Marley Besgrove battled tooth-and-nail in a 42 run stand with Shahid, until a ricochet of the spinner just landed at slip. Shahid continued undeterred, putting away the bad balls and putting aside some ordinary chat, to bring up his maiden 50 for the club late in the day. He and Freddy Whalebone saw out the day with the Golds 104 away from their target and with plenty of batting in the shed. While they’ll head back to Balmoral with plenty of confidence, they’ll want to leave themselves more than a solitary wicket this time around…
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