RD 15 MATCH REPORT V SYDNEY
& METRO CUP QUALIFYING FINAL v WARRINGAH
The final round of the 2020-21 season v Sydney had all to play for. First Grade needed a strong win and a couple of results in their favour and 2s to 5s were looking to finish the season on a high.
While in Metro Cup the regular season had concluded a week earlier with Gold progressing to the Qualifying Final in 5th to face their 2nd placed adversary Warringah at Mike Pawley.
Lefand Group 1st Grade @ Drummoyne
Randwick Petersham 9-231 (50 overs) J Sangha 70, W Affleck 32 def by Sydney 4-261 (50 overs) J Ralston 1-28, C Maladay 1-28
METRO CUP QUALIFYING FINAL v WARRINGAH
Titan Fitness Metro Gold @ Mike Pawley
Randwick Petersham 7-125 (38 overs) Jordie Segal 51, A Bhat 24 def Warringah 85 (57.1 overs) A Bhat 5-22, E Khoo 2-21
It was the first time since season 2016/17 that a team had qualified for Metropolitan Cup finals, and there was a nervous anticipation as players trekked over the Spit bridge early on Saturday morning. Not just after successfully taking a series of must-win games to scrape into 5th spot, but with the ominous weather forecast for Sunday meant that whatever happened on Saturday would go a long way to deciding the outcome. Despite having a hard and dry pitch to play on, the team’s consensus was a resounding ‘bowl first’ in the event of winning the toss. Having incorrectly called the last two weeks, luck finally shone on the Gold team and the hosts Warringah were asked to bat first.
Our openers were pumped. Jackson Dodd was free of scholastic burden and controlled the ball on a string, while Ashish Bhat backed up his impassioned speech to the team with an inspired spell of pace and swing. Jackson was the first to strike, with the tentative opening bat finally edging an uncertain waft to the keeper. From there, Ashish took over as the batsmen struggled to read which way the ball was going to move, with the other opener and number 4 both poking to second slip – leaving Warringah reeling at 3-11. Numbers 3 and 5 mounted a short recovery, but Ashish was not to be repressed. Steaming in for 13 overs on the trot, despite blisters, his unrelenting attack on the front pad of the chatty number 5 finally got him a 3rd wicket just ahead of lunch. For good measure, E-Young Khoo picked up the team’s fifth wicket ahead of the break, courtesy of a smart catch to Will Dodd. With Warringah 5-38 at lunch, the cordial and sandwiches tasted much better, but we knew that we still potentially had 5 sessions to play.
Amid the batting carnage, the Warringah number 3 had ridden his luck till that point – numerous edges, a dropped catch and missed stumping – and tried to sweep his way out of trouble when being bogged down by spin, only for one such shot to lob up for the easiest of caught behinds. A few quite overs from E-Young and Valmik Ahire and the big fish was landed – Manly-Warringah legend Warren Evans lost patience and charged a wide ball from ‘Rockets’ only to offer another caught behind and leave their team reeling at 7-43.
To the credit of numbers 8 and 9, they hung around and showed a level of patience that was lacking from the top order. They begun to chip their way through the overs, slowly adding some respectability to their score. It took the reintroduction of Ashish to finally break the 39 run stand, once again nailing the front pad in the right spot. Thanush Gowda picked himself up a wicket as well, with a smart change of pace foxing the number 10, while Ashish completed his 5-fer with another LBW to give him extraordinary figures of 5-22 off a marathon 17.1 overs. He would have run through a brick wall had it been in front of him, and it was a just reward for a season of hard work and dedication to the team cause.
Having bowled out Warringah for 85 on the cusp of tea, Gold were left 38 overs in the final session of the day to take the first innings. The innings begun positively as Will Dodd took 5 from the first over, but then unraveled quickly as the run rate fluctuated. Warringah’s big opening quick bowled with some pace, but it was his balls that stuck in the wicket that undid our batsmen. Two leading edges and a bowled had us in a bit of trouble, and then the other opener bowled Neale Crawford, the score was reeling at 4-23. However, there were still plenty of overs and batsmen to go.
The experience of John Stewart and the youthful exuberance of Jordan Segal pushed the score to 49 with smart batting, until John got an unfortunate shooter at the ankles. Having bowled his heart out and iced the chase in the previous week’s game, Ashish joined Jordan and the pair set about going after the remainder of the first innings target. Despite a few nervy moments with the running, powerful shots at the right times allowed them to eclipse the initial target shortly after the final drinks break and they went about setting an unassailable lead. Jordan was run out shortly after reaching 50, while Ashish was stumped off the part time leg spinner. It was left to Jackson and E-Young to ensure that there weren’t any more tremors in the day’s play.
The remarkable effort in ensuring a first innings victory on the first day was made even more special when we woke up to the apocalypse on Sunday morning. Despite the torrential rain, every single player in the team showed up on time, and patiently waited for the inevitable. After an hour, the captains and umpires got together to shake hands and confirm the passage of Gold to the Semi Finals. Had we not won on the first innings the day before – an effort that was testament to the will, drive and spirit of the team – we would have been knocked out of the competition. We will be looking for an encore performance this weekend against Mosman at Allan Border Oval.
Jeremy Jastrzab (C)
Suttons City Rosebery 2nd Grade @ Coogee Oval
Randwick Petersham 117 (34.1 overs) A Docos 44 def by Sydney 5-118 (29.2 overs) J Wood 4-34
After a disappointing season, second grade looked to end on a positive note with a victory at home against Sydney. Having been sent on what was admittedly a terrific cricket wicket once again, a flurry of dismissals saw us dismissed for a paltry 117, with only Adam Docos (44) providing a score of note. Our bowling unit turned up and managed to make the Tigers sweat, claiming 5 wickets, however ultimately the low score was the deciding factor with anything close to 200 creating a bit more of a contest. Jacob Wood once again turned in a terrific bowling effort, claiming another four wicket haul in his 10 overs, and has been tremendous for us in the back half of the season after recovering from injury. He will be a big part of our side in the future. It was an up and down season, highlighted my patches of high level play, but truncated with batting collapses and fielding errors at other times, the loss very much reflected where the team sits in the second grade pecking order. However, a young and somewhat inexperienced team will take a lot out of the season and will be playing with a chip on their shoulder in 2021/2022.
On behalf of all players who pulled on the Randwick-Petersham cap this year, thank you to all those who helped in some way, no matter how big or small. In particular, Paul O’Loughlin, Stanley Beale, Antony Sachs and Michael Wood who all helped game days run smoothly when they were around. Lastly, good luck to Metropolitan Gold in their run towards a premiership.
Jackson Eldridge (c)
Petersham RSL 3rd Grade @ Birchgrove Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 145 (46.2 overs) R Elliot 41 def by Sydney 153 (49.3 overs) J Mahony-Brack 2-15, M Mariguddi 2-24
RPC 3s arrived to picturesque Birchgrove Oval looking to finish off the season on a high and push ourselves up the ladder at least a few rungs. After the apocalyptic storm the previous night, the deck was a touch soft on top so there was no hesitation in bowling first when the toss, again, went our way. It proved a masterstroke as James Mahony-Brack (2-15 off 8) picked up a wicket with the 3rd ball of the game and again a couple overs later. Bilal Abbasi (2-41 off 9) struck next and when Akther Hussain (2-28 off 10) struck in his second over, we had Sydney 4-57 in the 20th over and were well on top. Sydney’s middle order put together a bit of a partnership, but it was well broken with some tidy glovework by Dale Hackney from the bowling of Vivek Mahajan (2-32 off 10), and from there Mandar Marigudddi (2-24 of 9.3) tidied up the rest, Sydney dismissed for 153 in the 50th over. It was one of our better bowling performances as a team, with flashes of brilliance in the field.
With the bat we again started strong with some dominant batting from JMB (27) and Ross Elliot (41) who put on 62 for the opening wicket. However, the middle order wickets kept falling at regular intervals with starts hard to come by against some very tight spin bowling from Sydney. Jaya Murdita (24) came out with a plan and bombed 3 maximums in an over to get us within 35 runs, and Abbasi (13*) got us within 9 runs of the total. However, some poor batting, dicey decisions, and a very good bowling performance from Sydney had us done, all out for 145, yet another game lost by an agonisingly close margin.
It was a disappointing end to the season; however, it perfectly mirrored our form all season in getting ourselves into a dominant position, letting the opposition get back into the game, and then crawling back to within winning distance only to fall short before the line. We have had a young side all year, and I have no doubt that the improvements we’ve seen this year will bode well for future seasons.
It’s been a pleasure captaining these lads this past year, and look forward to seeing them push for higher grade honours in the seasons to come.
Roll on next season.
Tom Holland (c)
Mellick Wealth Management 4th Grade @ Petersham Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 172 (47.4 overs) M Robinson 52, D Sidney 28 def by Sydney 9-206 (50 overs) A Mathews 3-28, B Stares 3-37
With no chance of finals for either side in the final round, the clash with Sydney was always going to be about one thing – pride.
Bowling first, a slow start for both sides was broken by Ben Stares (3/37) who broke the opening partnership. From there, the Sydney no.3 came out and started to take the game on. He was dropped mid-way through his innings, before the skipper (1/38) took the wicket of the man at the other end.
A brilliant spell from Alan Mathews (3/28) changed the game, dismissing the no.3 for 66 as well as taking two other poles. Staresy returned to take two wickets in two balls – including his younger brother.
Sydney piled on some runs late to take the score to 206 – a very chaseable target.
Things started off well, with Damo Sidney (28) getting us off to a quick start as we reached 1/57 after 9.
Max Robinson (52) again showed maturity beyond his years, batting patiently and waiting for the bad balls.
Unfortunately, he didn’t receive much support and we were bowled out for 173.
A tough way to end a tough season, but the growth and experience for some of our younger players will be beneficial moving forward.
Liam O’Loughlin (c)
Clovelly Community Bank Branch Bendigo Bank 5th Grade @ Ryde Oval
Result: Randwick Petersham 131 (47.4 overs) K Patel 34, F Heaton 23 def by Sydney 5-132 (23.3 overs) F Heaton 2-11
RPCC won the toss and elected to bat on what looked like a good batting wicket. In what was umpire Lyndsay Kain’s 650th game the RPCC team thanked him for his services and clapped him off the field at the end of the innings.
The top order were asked to leave as many balls for the first 10 overs, play into the turf early as due to the overnight rain the ball would get more wet and harder for the bowlers to grip.
However, it was a dismal start with Angus Beaumont (5), Sriram Suresh (7), Alan Xu (0) and Luke Takacs (6) in the sheds. RPCC 4-37 in 15 overs.
Number 5 batsman Krish Patel (34) and the Skipper Fabian Heaton (23) at 6 were under pressure not to lose any further wickets. Both played cautiously against the Sydney bowlers who had their tails up and bowling great line and lengths and to their fields.
With both Krish and Fabian rotating the strike and taking singles and two’s on a very slow outfield RPCC reached 4-75 in 34 overs and in a much better position.
The chat at the drinks break was for both batsmen to play the next 6 overs and get to 100 without losing another wicket and from the 40th over with Freddy Whalebone, Dane Coombs, Yogesh Wanzare, Adam Coombs and Ben Thomas in the sheds we could possibly get another 50 or 60 runs.
Unfortunately, in the 37th over the Patel/Heaton partnership was broken when Krish was out caught to a ball that he flicked straight to square leg. It was a top innings mixed with defence, aggression and fine shot selection to appropriate balls.
Next in Freddy Whalebone (3) joined Fabian and tried to up the ante but accidently skied a ball to mid off. Fabian was out 5 overs later trying to hit over the infield. RPCC 7-100 in 42 overs.
Dane Coombs (11) and Yogesh Wanzare (18 not out) looked the goods to get the team to 150 + with excellent running between wickets and pull shots over the infield.
However, it was not to be with the wickets of Dane, Adam Coombs (2) and Ben Thomas (0) falling in quick succession. RPCC all out 131 in 47.4 overs.
With a modest target to defend on a slow outfield the RPCC bowlers were asked to bowl 4th stump to the Sydney batsmen. Boundaries will need to be saved and definitely miserly on the extras like wides and no balls. After we get the top 3 batsmen in the sheds early on we then attack the stumps
RPCC medium pacers Dane Coombs (1-37 off 8), Adam Coombs (0-23 off 5), Ben Thomas (1-26 off 3), Freddy Whalebone (0-12 off 2) bowled some good lines but one of the opening batsman swung the bat and got lucky to connect most times and in a flash Sydney were 105 for 1 in 15 overs at 1st drinks.
Desperate for a breakthrough Skipper Fabian Heaton (2-11 off 2) bowling in his first game of the season immediately got the breakthrough in his 2nd ball enticing the settled aggressive opening batsman to loft the ball to Angus Beaumont at long on who took a splendid catch running to his right. Then 2 balls later trapped their next settled batsman LBW. Sydney 3-105.
Dane in his next over claimed the 4th Sydney wicket and Yogesh Wanzare (1-2 off 1) then chipped in with the next. Sydney 5-124
RPCC tried fighting back but with only 8 runs to defend Sydney snuck home.
A disappointing loss as we knew if we got 150+ we could have made a match out of this game.
There is so much talent in the side and cannot wait for next year.
BIG BIG thanks to all the parents who helped out and supported the team and to our selection committee who always tried to put the best team on the ground on the day.
Fabian Heaton (c)
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