Finals Cricket Preview – Sat/Sun 18/19 March 2022/23

Finals Cricket Preview–Sat/Sun 18/19 March 2023

1st Grade Qualifying Final: Randwick Petersham v Sydney University

3rd Grade Qualifying Final: Randwick Petersham v Penrith

Metro Semi-Final: Randwick Petersham v St George

What a great way to finish the regular competition with four wins over Mosman while our Metro boys advanced their way through to a semi-final! With 1sts, 3rds, 4ths and 5ths all getting the job done, we gained 106 points to finish in 7th place in the Club Championship. We also have a minor premier in 3rd Grade who got up on Saturday with a bonus point by chasing down their runs target within 30 overs. That enabled 3s to be level on points with front-runner Parramatta but take the minor title with a better quotient. It was only the second time 3rd Grade have been minor premiers, the first being in 2003-04 when they went on to win the premiership.

1st GRADE: We finished 6th on the points table and therefore play the Minor Premiers, Sydney University at University Oval from 9.45 am this Saturday and Sunday. The rub is that we have to win. A draw is no good to us. By finishing at the top of the table, Uni. will advance to the next round even if they lose. We played Uni. in round 6 in a match lost by just 11 runs, 172 to 183. It was a match we should have won. We have had many close encounters with Uni. over the years, beating them last year to win the T20 Cup. In fact, of our four wins in the T20 Cup, we defeated Sydney University in the Grand Final in three of them. That said, they beat us twice in Belvidere Cup Grand Finals.

In terms of the venue, we have clashed 15 times at University Oval in various competitions for a record of 8 wins, 6 losses and a draw. In 30 matches overall between the clubs, our record is 13 wins, 15 losses and 2 draws. This will be the match of the round.

Having won the Belvidere Cup in 2019-20, the Limited Overs Cup in 2020-21 and the Twenty20 Cup last year, we are keen to add another Belvidere Cup to our impressive collection. And we have the team to do it!

Our squad is: Camden Hawkins; Blake Weymouth; Jason Sangha; Riley Ayre; Anthony Sams; Ben Mitchell; Daya Singh (Capt); Angus McTaggart; Ash Burton; Jason Ralston; Jackson Gwynne; Shivansh Pathak; Max Robinson; Adam Docos.

3rd GRADE:  As Minor Premiers, 3rds play 6th placed Penrith at Coogee Oval from 10 am Saturday and Sunday. We played the Panthers in round 5 in what was our toughest match of the season. They scored 6-328 declared at Petersham and we were 9-307 in reply in a drawn match. Both scores were the highest ever against each other in 3rd Grade. Our winning record is 6 wins and 2 ties to 8 losses with 6 draws from 22 matches.

This will be the third time we have played Penrith at Coogee. We won by 140 runs in 2004-05 while in 2016-17 it was a 216 runs each tie. Interestingly, the sides had also tied at Bill Ball Oval two years earlier. The 3rd Grade squad is: Ross Elliot; Josh Mellick; Josh Segal; Mahsen Narvel; Thomas Holland (Capt.); Dave Dubey; Benjamin Tracey; Aman Rao; Akther Hussain; James Apostolakis; Dane Coombs, Reuben Sachs, Guru Chandar

METRO SEMI-FINAL:  While the score in the Qualifying Final looked wider than it actually was, Gold were the beneficiaries of finishing the season at the top of the table. Having seen off a much improved Sydney Uni Blue side, who in hindsight probably batted on for far too long, now take on competition debutants St George at the Petersham Oval fortress. St George started the competition like a house on fire, before falling into a midseason lull, then charging home with 3 outright wins (including a forfeit in their favour). Gold made use of that lull on an old school Snape dustbowl in December with an understrength team to hand St George one of their 3 losses for the season. In Petersham, they have a ground where they have only lost one match in the past two seasons. The last three semi finals that we have been involved in the Metro Cup have all been rain affected, where we once benefitted from being the higher placed team. The forecast for this weekend suggests that weather won’t be creating any problems for this weekend.

Our squad is: Asif Rasheed; Aditya Tiwari; John Stewart; Luke Takacs; Archie Robinson; Sriram Suresh; E-Young Khoo; Jeremy Jastrzab (Capt.); Zack Narayan; Ben Thomas; Thanush Gowda; Rishabh Goyal; Ryan Rajesh; Azaan Syed;