Round 14 Match Reports v Hawkesbury + Metro (Day 1)
MATCH REPORTS (Liam ‘LJ’ O’Loughlin)
1st to 5th Grades – Round 14 v Hawkesbury (2-Day Matches) Day 1
Metropolitan Cup – RPC Gold v Penrith & RPC Green v Sydney University
Lefand Group 1st Grade @ Owen Earle Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 2/234 (W Affleck 118*, S Eaton 57) defeated Hawkesbury 53 (D Sams 3/8)
In terms of day one results, they don’t get much prettier from a Randy Petes perspective. Travelling out to Bensons Lane, 1st Grade were looking to bounce back after a heartbreaking loss in the 50-over Grand Final the week prior – and they certainly did that, skittling the Hawks for just 53.
Daniel Sams (3/8 off 7) claimed the first pole of the game after just three balls, and it was all RPC from there as wickets continued to tumble. Daya Singh (2/1 off 5) was on fire and is in some seriously good form at the moment; as is young gun Caelan Maladay (2/14 off 6) who backed up his five-wicket haul from last round.
And the Randy Petes showed that the bowling performance had nothing to do with the wicket. Will Affleck (118*) and Shaun Eaton (57) put on 99 runs for the first wicket as we cruised to a first innings victory. Riley Ayre (11) spent some time at the crease before Jason Sangha (38*) joined Affleck to assert dominance and build a massive lead.
The innings from Affleck was his second century to date in Randy Petes colours, and in just his first season with the club is becoming one of our biggest weapons with bat in hand. Leading into finals and with Daniel Bell-Drummond gone home to England, Affleck’s incredible form couldn’t come at a better time.
Sutton City 2nd Grade @ Coogee Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 2/48 (A Docos 29) v Hawkesbury 197 (H Fox 3/33)
2s were pleased to get back to Coogee after a few weeks away, coming in with a different looking team to previous rounds. Green Shield skipper Reuben Sachs came in for a 2nd grade debut while Jason Ralston and Hayden Fox both made season debuts in the grade.
After losing the toss we got off to the perfect start reducing the Hawks to 2/16. The pitch then flattened out and we were made to wait another 111 runs for the next pole, Mitch O’Loughlin (2/35 off 13) providing the breakthrough in his 2nd spell. Patience was the key to the day, the Hawks lost regular wickets due to sustained pressure to finish 197 in the 79th. Hayden Fox (3/33 off 18) led the bowling effort, while Jason Ralston (2/52 off 22) charged in tirelessly, and rattled the Hawks bats with a few body blows along the way. Ben Montedoro (2/25 off 13) proved difficult to get away, and claimed the scalp of ex-Randy Pete Nikethan Radakrishnan (61).
With 15 overs left in the day we finished 2-48, Adam Docos (29) looking good for an aggressive dig before falling to a good rock. We’ll be hoping the rain stays away this week so we can knock off the remaining 150 runs with some good batting.
Thanks to Paul O’Loughlin, Anthony Sachs, Devo, Stan, and Fous for the help through the day.
Petersham RSL 3rd Grade @ Bensons Lane 2
Result: Randwick Petersham 207 (S Sultan 65)
3rd grade won the toss and batted first on a deck that looked like a road but didn’t play as well as initially expected and an outfield slower than Kenso when it hasn’t been cut for a month.
Some very tight bowling from the Hawks made it a tough day to bat, and starts from skipper Tom Holland (37) and keeper Kel Mullins (27) got us to a solid position. But it was Sayem Sultan (65) in the middle order notching a half-century on debut in 3rd grade that really held the side together. Sayem batted with controlled aggression and maturity to get through some tough sessions when the score was looking dicey, and together with some handy lower order partnerships and cameos from Coombs, Hutchison and Deller we were able to post 207. It would have been circa 250ish if not for the ridiculously slow outfield.
Big day of bowling/fielding next weekend as we see a bit of rain fall during the week which hopefully favours us.
Mellick Wealth Management 4th Grade @ Kensington Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 80 & 5/54 v Hawkesbury 2/94 (dec)
It was always going to be a tough task for the Randy Petes against a strong Hawkesbury outfit, with six players making their 4th Grade debut. We won the toss and batted first on what looked like a good deck – but we didn’t utilise it at all. Outside of a tidy partnership between debutants Will Deller (21) and Angus Beaumont (22), it was a shocking batting display as the majority of players threw their wicket away and we were skittled for just 80 runs.
The bowling wasn’t much better, as the Hawks dominated and passed our score within 16 overs before declaring two wickets down and sending us back in. The plan was to dig in and show some pride in the second innings, but we managed to lose 5/54 in the last part of the day.
Bendigo Clovelly Community Bank 5th Grade @ Bensons Lane 3
Result: Randwick Petersham 160 (A Bugti 39, P Kashyap 23*) v Hawkesbury 2/75
The word on the street was that Hawkesbury had a very strong 5th grade side as they were sitting in 10th position on the ladder and desperate for a win. The Hawks were noticeably excited when they heard skipper Fabian Heaton was called away on International cricketing duties. Little did they realise Randy Petes have amazing depth to call upon with the old war horse Michael Wood dusting off the creams and ACT Meteor and Melbourne Renegades all-rounder Carly Leeson bolstering the side, while Alan Xu made his long awaited grade debut as a late call-up.
A hard and fast green top was presented for play. Captain Wood-duck saw through greenery and decided to bat after winning the toss. D. Antaw (15) and A. Bugti (39) backed the skippers call and got Randy Petes off to a steady start by blunting the highly rated Hawks opening attack. At one stage Randys were 0/19 from 14 overs as they showed great resilience. With the loss of Antaw, M.Besgrove (11) and W.Grills (13) combined with Bugti “The rock at the top” to have the boys and 1 girl in a solid position at 3/96 in the 36th over.
The loss of Bugti and J. Gill (0) in quick succession turned the momentum in the Hawks favour as Randys slumped to 5/102. Enter Carly Leeson! A classy quick fire 22 from Leeson in combination with some big hitting from Wood-duck (18) stole back the momentum. A sensational 23 not out from P. Kashyap and 16 from A. Lee helped the Randys to a competitive 160 runs. Sadly our numbers 10 and 11 didn’t trouble the scoreboard.
In reply, our opening bowlers of Bugti and Kashyap turned the blow torch on the Hawks opening bats. Sadly, a couple of opportunities were grassed early and the Hawks capitalised to be 0/41. They were probably laughing on the inside when the stand-in skipper “Wood-duck” grabbed the ball to have a trundle. But it was the ol’ dog (1/13 from 4) who had the last laugh snaring the 1st wicket courtesy of a good catch by Ben Thomas.
The smiles continued when Carly Leeson (1/20) took the other wicket for the arvo courtesy of another good catch to Ben Thomas. It left the Hawks precariously positioned at 2/75 from 25 overs and the momentum with the Randy Petes. In any standard of cricket scoreboard pressure and momentum are handy attributes. The boys and 1 girl will be looking to continue with tight bowling and excellent fielding this weekend to deny the Hawks their anticipated surge into the finals.
Metropolitan Cup: Cartwright Insurance Green v Sydney University @ Marrickville Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham Green 54 (S Suresh 22) & 1/34 v Sydney University 7/100 (dec) (S Suresh 3/9, A Coombs 2/20)
With a late change 2 hours before play Green arrived at Marrickville to face Sydney Uni on the penultimate day of the Metro Cup regular season. On a decent wicket the Students elected to bowl and with Alan Xu at Benson’s Lane Stewart and Saeed opened the innings. Saeed fell early looking to take the attack to the opposition. With both ends playing differently Robinson (13) found the boundary twice and fell on the attack. Stewart (6) fell next and the returning Wanzare dropped anchor to steady the innings. It was tough going with Sriram Suresh (22) looking the most comfortable with the final wickets falling at 54.
Green came out firing with the most chat in the field all season led by stand in keeper Daany Saeed. Adam Coombs’ (2-20) bowled a fiery opening spell backed up nicely by Ben Keith (1-22) including his maiden wicket for the Randy Petes. Wanzare bowled tight to pick up a key wicket before Sriram (3-9) spun a web including unplayable wrong’uns. Late order hitting saw an unusual declaration with 16 overs in the day 7/100 (dec).
Stewart (11) fell halfway before stumps but with Saeed and Sriram, respectively 10*, will look to press on into Day 2
Metropolitan Cup: Titan Fitness Gold v Warringah @ Snape Park
Result: Randwick Petersham Gold 2/30 v Penrith 6/261 (dec) (C De Silva 2/53)
It was a monumental day for Gold team, with the debut of the second women’s player to play for Randwick Petersham – Women’s 1st Grade Representative Kate Barry. A powerful bat, Kate currently sits in the top 5 runs scorers in NSW Women’s Premier Cricket this season in Sydney. But Kate’s turn with the bat would have to wait, as the Golds chose to bowl first having seen how slow and crumbly the wicket was here last time. For the good of cricket though, the wicket turned out to be truer that last time, with surface holding together for the whole of the day.
The Penrith openers played patiently and were challenged by debutant Joel Fortmann and his wind-assisted inswingers, and the guile of veteran Charith De Silva. Will Forrester showed the benefits of having moved to bowling pace, working up a decent head of steam in the first time he’d deployed pace in a game. But it would be the youngest member on the team, Atharv Ramakanth, that would get the break-through. Thanush Gowda soon chipped in with a wicket following some patient bowling, thanks to a sharp catch from the returning Chintan Sapariya, and also with a direct hit run-out as the Penrith number 4 went for a kamikaze single.
At 3-154 at tea off 45 overs, the nascent team had done well to keep the lid on the scoring in very friendly conditions. The boys from the Blue Mountains opened up after tea, but made the errant mistake of trying to go too hard against big Chaz – who had the last laugh on two occasions, as he castled two overly aggressive batsmen. Joel came back and was rewarded with his first wicket for the club, but a slew of dropped catches in the late innings meant the Penrith batsmen got away from us more than we would have liked. The Penrith captain made a very aggressive declaration at 6-261, with plenty of overs still left in the day.
Kate went out to open the batting with Finlay Munro, and the pair looked solid for 8 overs until Kate edged behind off the Penrith opener – who had played as high as second grade – while Munro nicked off the slip not long after as well. Chintan on return looked like he’d never been away, and along with Daniel Davies saw off the rest of the day with few concerns. Still, it’s a big chase up for next week.
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