RD 11 MATCH REPORTS V SUTHERLAND
& METRO CUP v UNSW & BYE
Round 11 saw a great turnaround in fortunes for the Randy Petes against Sutherland in Premier Cricket and UNSW in Metro Cup.
First Grade reverted to 2 day cricket across Saturday and Sunday while the rest of the Grades finished their one day matches. Batsman and bowlers fired with 5 wins from 6 at the conclusion of the weekend but technically 6 from 7 when accounting Green’s 6 points for the bye.
1s at Glenn McGrath Oval were on the backfoot early as the Sharks piled on 185 for the first wicket before the rest of the order fell for a further 57 runs. The chase began precariously with the side 4 down overnight. At the loss of the 6th wicket Puru Gaur and Adam Semple combined for a 158 stand to claim victory from the jaws of defeat.
At Sutherland 3rd Grade dominated the Sharks with a 122 run win on the back of the skipper Tom Holland’s 49 and debutant Bilal Abbasi’s 5-20 (his best figures for the Randy Petes).
While 2nd (5 runs), 5th (6 runs) and Metro Gold (7 runs) gained hard fought wins with a number of strong performances. Ben Montedoro’s 4-32 ripped through the Shark’s line up at Coogee, a 129 run partnership between Chaplin (78) and Heaton (52) was the foundation for an away victory and the honours with bat and ball were shared in Gold by Davies (40), Jordie Segal (36), Ben Thomas and Hewa Gamage (3 wickets apiece).
Lefand Group 1st Grade @ Glenn McGrath Oval – 2 day
Randwick Petersham 6-244 (75.4 overs) A Semple 86*, P Gaur 61* def Sutherland 242 (78.3 overs) R Ayre 5-71
Suttons City Rosebery 2nd Grade @ Coogee Oval
Randwick Petersham 194 (47.4 overs) A Docos 44, J Mellick 39 def Sutherland 8-188 (50 overs) B Montedoro 4-32, S Sharma 2-34
Second grade returned to the winners circle with a close victory against Sutherland at the weekend. Winning the toss and batting, Randwick-Petersham began well with Adam Docos (44) and Josh Mellick (39) building a solid opening partnership, however the side was unable to capitalise and lost wickets in regular intervals to only post 194.
With the ball the side was tremendous, executing plans and fielding excellently to eventually end up 6 run victors, with Ben Montedoro (4/32) the highlight. A special shout out to Scott Sharma and Ashley Burton who closed off the match with the ball, as the Sharks only required a run a ball off the last four overs and with many close results going against us in these situations this season, we were able to draw on that experience and get the six points.
Congrats to other victorious teams as it is a real sign of the hard work going in at training, however, a huge round against perennial heavyweights Sydney University awaits.
Jackson Eldridge (c)
Petersham RSL 3rd Grade @ Sutherland Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 203 (49.2 overs) T Holland 49, J Murdita 25 def Sutherland 81 (27.1 overs) B Abbasi 5-20, C O’Riordan 2-22
RPC 3s travelled over the George’s River to Sutherland Oval with two debutants in RPC 3s, Connor O’Riordan and Bilal Abbasi. We won the toss and batted first on, what looked like, a very good batting deck. The pitch was a bit tennis-bally early and we had to battle hard to get in, but James Mahony-Brack (21) got us off to a good start. A few quick wickets had us in trouble, but a nice consolidating partnership between Jaya Murdita (25) and Tom Holland (49) steadied the ship, followed on by starts to Josh Segal (23), Connor O’Riordan (20) and Akther Hussain (22*) with a quickfire 16 to Sadeep Deepak at the end to get us up to 203 which was a defendable total.
In response, we struck first with a smart runout to Hussain, followed by an absolute peach of a ball from O’Riordan (2-22 off 5.2) to bowl their number 3. Mandar Mariguddi (0-19 off 6) bowled well in tandem with Connor with no luck, and when Deepak broke down, young Bilal stepped up to the mark. What followed with bowling to a simple plan, hitting consistent areas and constantly asking questions of the batsmen. From taking his first wicket in 3s, to then claiming a 5fa, Bilal bowled with maturity and smarts. He ended with 5-20 off 8. JMB (1-16 off 6) bowled very tight from the other end, continuing to heap the pressure on the Sharks and was rewarded with a well-deserved pole, and finally Huss (1-0 off 1) and Connor cleaned up the rest rolling them for 81 and delivering us our first win of the season, with a bonus point no less. Hopefully we can take this momentum into the last few rounds and finish with a few more wins. Roll on next week.
Tom Holland (c)
Mellick Wealth Management 4th Grade @ Petersham Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 124 (34.1 overs) C Graham 26, L Lopes 26, S Dubey 25 def by Sutherland 5-126 (36.2 overs) S Stirling 2-37
Batting first, a good deck at Petersham Oval on a beautiful day was put to waste by the Randy Petes. Luca Lopes (26) was the only top-order batsman to score any runs of substance, with the hosts 3/5 and 7/49 during our innings. Corey Graham (26) and Sanjiv Dubey (26) saved us at the end, getting us to 124.
The bowling and fielding was strong, and at 4/49 we were right in the game. Some top notch bowling from Scott Stirling (2/37 off 9.2), Guru Chandar (1/24 off 10), Corey Graham (1/14 off 3) and the skipper (1/27 off 10) wasn’t enogh as Sutherland passed our score 5 down.
On a good weekend for the club, it was bitterly disappointing to see another poor performance with the bat in 4s ultimately cost us a ‘greenwash’.
Hopefully things will turn around soon.
Liam O’Loughlin (c)
Clovelly Community Bank Branch Bendigo Bank 5th Grade @ Tonkin
Result: Randwick Petersham 7-192 (50 overs) B Chaplin 78, F Heaton 52 def Sutherland 187 (49.1 overs) D Coombs 3-46, J Dodd 2-23
RPCC won the toss and elected to bat on a wicket that had a bit of grass at both ends but was hard and seemed like the wicket could break up during second innings with variable bounce and ball might keep low. Also, the choice to bat first was based on the previous rounds where Sutherland performed poorly chasing. A total of 150 + would be fighting target for Sutherland to chase down.
Unfortunately, we lost our top order batsmen early and looked in dire straits at 4 for 24 in the 13th over.
But, Ben Chaplin (78) and skipper Fabian Heaton (52) dug deep and batted conservatively for the next 22 overs to ensure there was no risk of losing another wicket and brought the total 82 in 35 overs at the 2nd drinks break.
With 6 wickets in hand and 15 overs to go Ben and Fabian stepped on the accelerator and scored briskly to take the score to 153 until Ben pulled a full toss straight to square leg. The 5th wicket partnership realised a valuable 129 runs. Ben’s knock was a mixture of thumping off drives and cover drives when the ball was pitched up and glorious back foot punches through covers and mid off and mid on when the bowlers erred and pitched the ball short. It was a sensational knock.
Fabian was out soon after to a brilliant catch by the Sutherland skipper. Total 157 for 6 with 5 overs to spare. The message to the next batmen in was to ensure we play the 50 overs.
Dane Coombs (9), Luke Takacs (20 not out) and Alan Xu (2 not out) played intelligent cricket by running hard and converting 1’s into 2’s . Luke’s quickfire 20 runs seemed like the runs that would make the difference at the end. The last five overs yielded 35 valuable runs. RPCC fnished on 192 for 8 in 50 overs.
The bowlers were asked to stick to the plan as discussed pre-match which was to bowl one side of the wicket and do not gift wides. Bowling and fielding would need to be clean and catches taken to win the game.
Alan Mathews (1-36 off 10) and Jackson Dodd (2-23 0ff 10) started off the RPCC proceedings brilliantly conceding only 12 runs in 6 overs. Dodd in his 2nd over was finally rewarded his 1st wicket in Premier Cricket, caught behind of a beautiful delivery that moved of the seam just enough to take the edge and in his 3rd over his 2nd wicket another great delivery that pitched on leg stump swung in to thump the batsman’s pad in front of middle stump. At the end of 10 overs Sutherland were 2 for 20 off 10 overs.
The bowling change of Dane Coombs (3-46 off 10) and Freddy Whalebone (0-31 off 5) beat the bat a few times, but with wind changing direction and bowlers trying too hard wides and no balls were regularly conceded. The Sutherland batsmen capitalised upon the extra deliveries and couple of dropped chances of the bowling of Freddy to reach 2-87 off 20 overs.
Mathews and Dodd were brought back to stem the runs and this almost clicked but a tough caught and bowled chance was floored.
A double bowling change in the form of spin was introduced and the plan was for the bowlers to pitch the ball up and no flighted deliveries. Sriram Suresh (1-25 off 7.1) and Yogesh Wanzare (2-26 off 7) stuck to the plan. Yogesh got the breakthrough enticing the number 4 to pull a ball to Coombs at deep midwicket who completed a fine catch under pressure.
Next in was the Sutherland skipper (ex 1st grader) who settled in comfortably and attacked both spinners to take the total to 3-140 at drinks.
At the break the team were asked to again dig deep and work hard to get just couple of wickets early. Mathews and Dodd were again brought back into the attack and both stuck to the bowling plan. The former got the breakthrough with the Sutherland skipper holding out to point for Dodd to take a fine overhead catch. Sutherland 4-153 in 35 overs.
Coombs replaced Dodd and soon had their top scoring batsmen out to a sensational catch at square leg by Sriram. He then snared 2 more reducing Sutherland to 7-176 with 6 overs left.
With the final roll of the dice spin was reintroduced with Sriram and Yogesh spinning a web around the tail. Luke Takacs was rewarded with a fine run out when the batsman tried to take a cheeky single. Yogesh then bowled the number 9 and finally Sriram took a caught and bowled in the 50th over to seal the victory.
Fabian Heaton (c)
Titan Fitness Metro Gold @ Kensington Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 190 (48.1 overs) D Davies 40, Jordie Segal 36, W Dodd 24 def UNSW 183 (46.3 overs) B Thomas 3-22, D Hewa-Gamage 3-45
The Gold team found themselves in a must-win contest against run-away leaders and reigning Metropolitan Cup champions, UNSW, at their only game of the season at Kensington Oval. With the returns of Daniel Davies and prodigal son Denesh Hewa-Gamage – after 10 years away from Randwick Petersham – lending some much appreciated experience, the toss fell in our favour and there was no hesitation in batting first. Dr Asif Rasheed got us off to a flyer by flaying the young students around the ground, before falling to a freak caught-and-bowled. After a second quick wicket, Will Dodd and Denesh steadied the ship once again. Will built his innings impressively, while Denesh made good use of some loose bowling and a short eastern boundary. Both fell in quick succession to leave the score teetering at 4-77 and an uncomfortably familiar position from previous weeks.
Ashish Bhat and Davies steadied the ship, with the former playing anchor and the latter playing enforcer once he got his eye in. Davies was particularly strong down the ground and through the covers when the short boundary was on offer. An unfortunate mix-up with Bhat ended his innings at 40, while Bhat threw his wicket away the next over to still leave us short at 6-139. Enter Jordan Segal who has spent many years watching games at Kensington and playing here with SEJCA reps. After giving himself a quick sighter, Jordie laid into the tiring UNSW bowlers to give us the final overs boost that we needed with 8 sweetly struck boundaries. The Golds managed to take the score to 190 but unfortunately left 11 balls out in the middle.
Having a defendable score allowed the bowlers to attack, and after frustrating the opening pair, one ran themselves out errantly taking on the accurate arm of Bhat. The number three then snicked off first ball off Ben Thomas, where Warwick Preston took a spectacular diving catch at second slip. The students consolidated, and their other opener was lucky to survive a caught behind shout. On the cusp of drinks, their number 4 tried to hook a short ball off Thomas that came on a bit quicker than expected and the gloved skipper settled under the high ball safely. The middle session was ruled by Valmik Ahire, whose accurate dobblers accounted for a caught behind and a caught and bowled and impressive figures of 2-28 off 10. Unfortunately, some errors and dropped catches crept in and the lucky opener still held firm. At 5-116 with 30 overs to go, the game was still there for both teams to take.
In exciting final stages, prodigal son Denesh (3-45) found his lines and lengths to extract a caught behind, then two errant shots including the lucky opener to have the students teetering at 8-141. But they Bees showed they’re not number one for no reason, as their number nine monstered a pair of sixes and the number 10 looked solid. E-Young Khoo got reward for bowling a tight line to get the number 9 out LBW to have the score at 9-166 with 8 overs in the shed. Ten and Jack actually played smart and sensible cricket to chip away at the total, before a Bhat over left the students needing 8 runs off 4 overs. With his tail up, Ben Thomas charged in and in the middle of the 47th over induced the number 11 to hit one straight into the hands of Bhat at point (who did well with the sun directly in his eyes) to seal the deal with 7 runs to spare. An exciting finish to a great day of cricket, where all players contributed to a consummate team effort to yield a result that puts the Gold campaign back on track.
Special thanks to all the supporters that came through out the day, and to Damian Sidney for helping clean up after his game finished early.
Jeremy Jastrzab (C)
Cartwright Insurance Metro Green
Result: BYE
The Round 11 match reports are proudly brought to you by Pegasus Sponsor:
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