NSW Premier Cricket Round 7 vs UNSW, 1st Grade T20 Semi-Final & Metro Recap
Round 7 was a mixed bag for the Randy Petes, with four wins (including one in Metro) and two losses against local rivals UNSW in 50-over cricket.
1st Grade were outclassed by the Bees on the road, while 2nd Grade fell agonisingly short of chasing down a mammoth total at Petersham Oval.
The middle and lower grades all had a good weekend however, with 3rd Grade keeping themselves firmly entrenched in the top six on the ladder. 4th Grade put themselves back within striking distance of the top-six with a good win at Coogee, 5th Grade also secured a much-needed win, while Green flew the Metro flag proud with a spectacular chase at Petersham Oval.
Unfortunately, RPC’s defence of the 1st Grade T20 competition came to an end, going down to a strong Gordon outfit on Sunday afternoon.
Lefand 1st Grade: UNSW 2/210 def. RPC 9/209 (Sams 86*)
1st Grade Limited Cup premiership holders Randwick Petersham saw the defence of its title take a real nosedive when soundly beaten by UNSW over the weekend. Playing at David Philips Memorial Field, the students won by 8 wickets, 2-210 to 9-209.
After losing the toss, Randwick Petersham batted first and were away to a flyer with Camden Hawkins and Adam Docos putting on 49 in just 7.3 overs. But both were gone at 52. Thereafter, it was all downhill, with only Anthony Sams standing tall. Coming in at the end of the ninth over, he was still there at the end, unconquered on 86* having faced 122 balls and hit 7 fours. Hawkins made an impressive 32 off just 28 balls with 6 fours and a six. Next best was Ryan Ninan who belted 15 off 14 balls batting at no. 9. After being 0-49, the score slumped to 6-119—a loss of 6-70. The magnificent performance of Sams was his fourth half-century this season and his 30th overall for the club. It was an innings deserving of a century. He now has 484 runs this season.
In the run chase, University openers Jack Attenborough and Ethan Jamieson did it relatively easy, putting on 105 in 19 overs before Jamieson fell to Ninan for 43 off 47 balls. The in-form Attenborough eventually fell for 79, but at 2-163, only 47 runs were needed off 18 overs. Former Randy Pete, Suffan Hassan, hit the winning runs at the 40.5 overs mark, finishing with 56* off 62 balls.
Lefand 1st Grade T20: Gordon 4/221 def. RPC 7/186 (Mitchell 67 Burton 55*)
Randwick Petersham has an outstanding record in white-ball cricket. The team were this season, defending premiers in both the 1st Grade Limited Overs Cup and the Kingsgrove Sports Twenty20 Cup. However, things have not gone to plan since, losing the two limited overs games played to date and being knocked out of the Twenty20 competition with a loss in the semi-final on Sunday.
Playing Gordon at Coogee Oval in an afternoon fixture, Riley Ayre struck an early blow for the hosts by dismissing gun bat, Axel Cahlin, in the first over. But there was no more celebrating until the first ball of the 13th, when fast bowler Jason Ralston had Tym Crawford edge one into the safe gloves of wicket-keeper, Anthony Sams. The only problem was that Crawford had made 89 off just 43 balls with 8 fours and 6 massive sixes. And the total had reached 150 after a partnership of 144 with Dale McKay! But more was to follow with McKay getting to the stage of being 91* in a tally of 3-212 as Ralston bowled the final over. And while it cost 9 runs, he managed to take a wicket and keep McKay to just 2 runs off the last ball and see him complete the innings on an amazing and frustrating 99* off 53 balls with 14 fours and 2 sixes. The final total of 3-221 was the highest score against the club in 76 T20 matches played since the competition began in 2009-10.
In the run chase, Randwick Petersham would have to pass its previous Coogee best score of 4-217 in 2015-16 to win. And while the final total of 7-186 off the 20 overs was well short of the target, the side gave it a good shot, particularly so after being 6-59. It was at that point that Ben Mitchell and Ash Burton got together in a whirlwind partnership of 95, broken only when Ben was caught for 67 off just 36 balls with 3 fours and 5 sixes. Burton pushed on and ended with 55* off 34 balls with 6 fours and a six. Both numbers were top scores for each player and first half-centuries in 1st Grade. It augurs well for their future in the top grade.
And so ends the Twenty20 competition for Randwick Petersham for another year. In its 14 years, we have won 55 of 76 matches, been premiers four times while also making the semis four times. A brilliant record in any one’s language. And just as brilliant is the record of Anthony Sams who has now scored 1,135 runs with 3 fifties and a century in 72 T20 matches while completing 63 dismissals behind the stumps.
Suttons 2nd Grade: UNSW 7/292 def. RPC 8/291
2nd Grade bowled first on a good wicket at Petersham Oval. Some poor bowling early saw UNSW make a strong start with plenty of boundaries scored. Connor O’Riordan bowled well for his two wickets and whilst the fielding was good, the overall standard of bowling was not up to scratch as UNSW compiled 292 from their 50 overs.
In reply, Randwick made a solid start with Zak keogh and Blake Weymouth both passing 50, but neither were able to go on with the job. Approaching the half-way mark of the chase, the required run-rate crept up above seven runs per over. Tim Tector and Scott Macbeth both batted well, but fell trying to find the boundary. With the required run-rate moving to nine an over from the last 10, young gun Max Robinson played played an impressive innings punctuated by clean ball-striking at the death. With 22 runs needed from the last over, Randwick managed to get 20 of them, losing by just one run, with Max finishing not out on 60.
Petersham RSL 3rd Grade: RPC 7/209 (Dubey 75 Segal 51*) def. UNSW 9/207 (Deepak 2/22 Dubey 2/28)
RPC 3rd Grade arrived at Cahill Oval and after (again) losing the toss we were surprisingly asked to bowl first on a green deck. Dane (1-56 off 9) and Sadeep (2-22 off 6) troubled the batsmen early with balls beating the outside edge for fun, but it was Jaya (1-11 off 3) that picked up the first wicket, followed by Dave (2-28 off 6) who bowled with more venom than previous weeks picking up 2 big scalps in his spell. From there Guru (1-34 off 10) and Huss (1-21 off 10) bowled fantastically in tandem and turned the screws to make it very difficult for the Bees batsmen to score. BT (1-34 off 6) chipped in with a crucial wicket towards the end while Sadeep claimed the last two wickets of the innings, the Bees limping to 9-207 after 50.
Our batting innings started quick with Josh Mellick (14) taking on the opening bowlers, but a few quick wickets left us 3 down early. A fantastic counterattack from Jaya (29) was unfortunately cut short by a miscommunication leading to a runout, and we slumped to be 5-93 in the 20th. Enter Dave Dubey (75). Ably supported by Josh Segal (51*), Dubey played a dazzling innings belting the Bees bowlers to all ends of the park, playing with confidence and ingenuity in his strokes, including a few reverse sweeps for boundaries and a huge six over cover. At the other end, Segal was the rock of the innings allowing us to bat with a bit more intent and flair. A small hiccup at the end wasn’t enough to stop us as we passed their score 7 down in the 40th over, fittingly, Sadeep “Iceman” Deepak getting us across the line at the end.
Overall, our fielding was key in our victory, easily saving 20-30 runs and almost enacting multiple runouts. The brand of cricket we’ve been playing being very positive with the bat is coming off well as we notch up our 4th victory of the season. Plenty of work still to do, but the good signs are there. Roll on next week.
Mellick Wealth 4th Grade: RPC 7/234 (Rao 70* Chaplin 58) def. UNSW 5/229
Down at Coogee Oval, RPC won in the last over with a nail-biting finish in a one-day clash against UNSW.
Losing the toss and bowling first found RPC with a cracking start, having both openers James Apostolakis and Thomas Gibson pick up a wicket each. Veteran Nigel Singh picked up 2 wickets and our returning Ben Chaplin from Metros last week picked up one wicket. As UNSW started to find rhythm, their top and middle order took them to a total score of 229.
After a nice visit to Chargrill Charlies, Luca Lopes (48) and Ben Chaplin (58) stepped in and gave us hope. Lopes unfortunately fell as he tried to send the cricket ball to the Coogee Bay Hotel, before Aman Rao (70*) played absolutely brilliantly. Needing 12 off the last two overs, Rao did it with style, hitting multiple boundaries. A well deserved match-winning knock for the Englishman and a few grey hairs for the supporters in an agonisingly close match.
Clovelly Community Bank 5th Grade: RPC 6/231 (Myers 66) def. UNSW 202 (Ali 4/45 Schultz 3/26)
5th Grade rocked up to Alexandria Park to be greeted with a flat wicket and small boundaries. After having won the toss and electing to bat, Green Shield opening pair of Hunter Palmer (28) and Jake Myers (66) got us off to the start we were looking for.
James Stirton (41) came in and accelerated the run rate with some big boundary hitting. Further contributions down the order got us to 6/230, about 20 runs shy of where we wanted to be, but we backed our bowlers to defend the total.
With the ball we came out raring to go, and after a few early boundaries Harry Schulz made an early breakthrough. Unfortunately we let up and some wayward bowling and average fielding kept the bees in the game. James Stirton (2/38) took the key wicket of the other opener to get us back in. This was followed by some incredibly tight bowling from Mark Tape (1/28) and Jake Myers (0/19), which allowed Qasim Ali (4/45) to do the damage at the other end.
Schultzy (3/26) came back and cleaned up the tail very quickly and handed 5s their second win of the season.
Mr Taxman Metro Gold: BYE
Cartwright Insurances Metro Green: RPC Green 4/275 (A Jayapragash 69, A Syed 56, R Goyal 51*, D Brar 31, N Desai 28) defeated UNSW 9/274 (G Aithchison 3/47, N Desai 2/22)
With word filtering through of almost 600 runs being scored on the previous day at Petersham Oval, players from both sides were greeted by the most stunning of cricket wickets, even on the second day of use. Even though Green lost the toss and were asked to bowl by the ‘other’ students, opening bowlers Zack Narayan and Gregor Aitchison made good use of the pace and bounce on offer. Gregor feasted on the spoils, taking the edge of both openers while later proclaiming that the UNSW number 4 made him “look like Mitchell Starc”. It was third time lucky dismissing the UNSW number 3 – after an LBW and spectacular caught behind were denied – with Nimesh Desai just taking out the middle peg. Ashane Jayapragash also chimed in with his first wicket for the club, as Green restricted UNSW to 5/143 at the second drinks in ideal batting conditions. Unfortunately, a string of wides let the student off the hook, as their lower order made hay in the shining sun and took the score to 9/274 off 50 overs. Gregor was the pick of the bowlers with 3/47 and an impressive final over, while Nimesh snagged 2/22.
With conditions far from getting any worse, Ashane and Nimesh got us off to an ideal start, with the former – all of 14 years old – outpacing his senior partner in a stand of 84. After Nimesh departed, Azaan Syed and Ashane steadily moved the score till the second drinks, taking us just over the half way mark at the second drinks. While he had shown a penchant for occupying the crease until that point, Ashane brought up his first half century for Randwick Petersham at a decent click. At 1/138 with 16 overs and 137 runs to win, despite losing Ashane to an immensely mature 69, Azaan hit the afterburners and begun to pepper the straight boundaries, while smartly rotating the strike. His 56 contained 3 sixes and 4 fours, and it took the best ball of the day to dislodge him. With 82 left to get off 8.5 overs Green Shielders Rishabh Goyal and Daman Brar (31) batted with supreme intent and tireless running to make sure the required rate never got out of hand. Even after a quiet 46th over, they refused to panic and got the target under a run-a-ball with 2 overs in the shed. Rishabh (51*) brought up his maiden 50 with a majestic boundary over square leg to tie the scores. Despite a minor hiccup, the target was achieved with 7 balls to spare, in what will no doubt go down as one of the most spectacular chases in our Metro Cup history – noting that 4 players under 18 contributed 207 runs between them.
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