The second day of play for round 2 of the NSW Premier Cricket competition saw the students chasing down a win against Blacktown. Eager to put practice into play, the Sydney Uni Lions faced the Old Cranbrookians in their first match of the season.
1st Grade
If ever one thought the bowlers would take the 6 points on offer for granted, they need not look further than the game of Nash which kicked off the day’s proceedings. It was clear that the bowling group only had eyes for the game of cricket at hand as they went completely missing during warm up. Ben Joy opened day 2's play for the students in perfect fashion. His first ball was right on the money and when that LBW was turned down he returned 2 balls later to grab the students an early breakthrough. As expected Joy worked tirelessly all day for the students and although his figures didn't reflect how well he bowled, his opening spell was crucial in setting the tone for the day. Following his 2 wickets the previous week, Tim Ley continued his fine form with another devastating opening spell. After dismissing leading Blacktown batsmen Jake Fawcett in the days 4th over, Ley never looked back. He was relentless in making the batsmen play and finished with career best figures in first grade of 6/18 from just 10 overs. Joe Kershaw and Hayden Kerr entered the attack following the spells of Ley & Joy to quickly wrap up the innings dismissing the opposition for just 65.
With Blacktown still trailing by 330 runs, Uni opted to have another bowl in search of 10 points. With 75 overs still to play, hopes of an outright victory were high. The Students were made to work much harder for their wickets in the 2nd innings. Kershaw grabbed the opening breakthrough after lunch and showed exactly what he has to offer for the long season ahead. Capable of getting through a mountain of work, Kershaw ran in hard all day and bowled with impressive pace to finish with 5 wickets across both innings. Unfortunately, the push for 10 points was ultimately unsuccessful with Blacktown finishing the day at 7-221. The 96 overs spent in the field will no doubt prove invaluable for the season ahead. Taking 17 wickets in a day was a promising return for a uni side who again look able and willing to work hard for long periods of time.
2nd Grade
Saturday saw the students back on the M4, with nerves jangling on the drive out to Jo McAleer as the game was hanging in the balance. While the trip out the M4 is not always the most anticipated away game each season, a big thanks must go to Blacktown Cricket Club for hosting us in superb fashion. A flawless outfield and a good wicket are hard to come by at this time of year, and we were presented with both. Blacktown was also generous enough to provide lunch (free of charge) to us, which was very much appreciated. At 5-95 chasing 155 for the first innings victory, the odds were slightly in our favour at the start of the day, although getting through the first 10 overs unscathed was of particular importance. Ed Arnott and Jono Dobson picked up exactly where they left off last week, taking us from a precarious 5-40odd last week through to 6-115, in what was a match-winning partnership. Special mention must go to Ed Arnott for what was, without doubt, his best dig at the club, batting under significant pressure throughout. The loss of a few quick wickets put Blacktown in the box seat midway through the first session, and with 10 runs required with one wicket in hand, there were more than a few undie changes required on the sidelines. Mercifully, a dropped catch at second slip with 7 runs to win gave us the break we needed, and Ed Arnott deservingly hit the winning runs not long after. With the game over Liam Whitaker stepped up to the plate with the bat, dispatching his opposite number to all corners of the park for an entertaining 20odd, and a 60 run last wicket partnership added insult to injury.
With the scent of a discouraged Blacktown permeating the ground, the students were on the hunt for 10 points. Some great bowling from both Jono Dobson and Lawrence Neill Smith saw Blacktown reeling at 4-50. Despite toiling hard with the ball, disciplined batting meant that Blacktown batted themselves out of danger. All-in-all a great effort from the Students to sneak over the line for the 6 points. A close win that will no doubt pay dividends at the back at end of the season.
3rd Grade
Day 2 of Round 2 and it was more of the same, Michael Robbo once again managed to lurk in 10mins after the required arrival time. Arguably this was due to trouble finding a park, and another “mixed case” pilfered from his parents’ leftovers were provided. This, coupled with some excellent chocolate mud cake and the fact that the beers were on ice meant that the boys were in good spirits preparing to knock off the required runs. Nashball was run and won by old, with the youth being soundly beaten across the park. A withering assessment of his teammates was provided by the normally taciturn Ryan Danne, who intoned “it’s gonna be a long season” when confronting the reality of week-in week-out Nash on the young side.
Lewis “Mattress” Bedford and Danno strode out to the middle and continued where they left off until Danno suffered an unfortunate decision to depart for 41. Some good partnerships followed throughout the afternoon and Uni ticked over the required runs in good order shortly after drinks. Solid contributions from Robbo, Powys, Toyer, and Woody meant that we built up around a 100 lead at tea, with the Mattress being the star of the show, falling just short of a maiden SUCC century for an excellent 93. An ultimately futile attempt to make it an outright result followed, however on a good pitch it was always going to be a tall order with only 37 overs remaining. Disciplined batting from Blacktown saw the game called at drinks in the last session, and Uni deserving winners after a solid all-round performance.
2 wins from 2 outings to start the season and we will be looking to continue this good form into the next round when we travel to take on the magpies.
SUCC 293:
L Bedford 93
R Danne 41
M Robinson 38
S Wood 35
M Powys 27
Blacktown 197:
L McMahon 5-61
S Wood 2-28 and 1-61
4th Grade
Heading into day 2, the 4’s were looking for two in a row and to further build momentum into the season. After another victory to the Julios in Nash, AJ decided to declare on our overnight score of 9/226, with the side looking to take the 9 wickets required for victory (Blacktown were 1 short). Uni set out in the field with a strong intensity and were eager to set the tone early in the day. Aidan Peak and Billy Barge combined strongly to open the bowling, with Peak bowling economically and building pressure (0/10 off 8 overs) and Barge from the other end causing havoc, taking an early couple of wickets before finishing the day with the impressive figures of 4/16 off 13.1 overs. From there, it was the new man Olly Thompson who came on with his leggies and bowled with brilliant control throughout the session before the tea break. Thompson bowled to his field, building the pressure before striking, and at one point being on a hat trick. Olly’s control was rewarded with the figures 4/29 from 16 overs, however, one of those wickets was effected with the complete opposite of control with a half-tracker that nearly bounced twice, to which the Blacktown captain hit straight up in the air much to Olly’s disgust. In the end, it was a great team performance by the 4th grade boys, with solid batting the week before, setting up the match to close with a strong bowling and fielding performance.
Sydney Uni 9-226 (declared):
AJ Grant 62*
B Dilley 59
L McElduff 34
Blacktown 97:
B Barge 4-16
O Thompson 4-29
R Browne 1-3
5th Grade
Sydney Uni 233:
H Farrow 43
H Storey 36
Z Islam 31
Blacktown 9-237:
S Canagasingham 5-28
M Miles 2-39
Metro Cup
Following a narrow loss to Eastern Suburbs in Round 2, 6th Grade was looking to bounce back against Metropolitan Cup powerhouse Penrith. After being sent in to field on a dry track at Rance Oval, the pace bowlers performed well in partnerships to bowl Penrith out for 200. Jazz Rinka led with the new ball and was the pick of the bowlers, with 3-29. He was well supported by Max Shanahan, who collected a tidy 2-35.
Having seen the difficulty Easts had in chasing 180 last weekend, the lads knew the task was going to require some solid application with the bat. After a shaky start, Brahmam Chunduri and Max Veltro steadied the ship with a 68 run stand for the 3rd wicket. Brahmam ended up with 64 and got the students well and truly back into the game. Solid middle order contributions from Mike Harris and Jon Aylward then laid the platform for Jazz and Greg Cade to steer Sydney Uni over the line with a 50 run 8th wicket stand.
The side will take great confidence from this victory and will be looking to continue their strong start to the year as they take on UNSW next week in the first 2-dayer of the season.
Sydney Uni Lions
The new season has welcomed a closer bond between what was the SU Vets side and SUCC. This has brought a wave of young and energetic players to balance the experience that the Vets had to offer. Welcome to the SU Lions.
A lost toss was one hiccup as the opening bowler, Ashwin Kirubanandan, and 1st change bowler, Prasan Adikirage, were rewarded with wickets in their 1st and 2nd overs respectively. The other hiccup was an injury to the skipper Croft, who retreated briefly to the sidelines. The pressure built with consistent line and length from these bowlers was continued by Will Sammuri and Oliver Ottosan. Ottosan accounted for their quality No 3, Maxwell, with the score at 3-51. After this, the COBs only added another 48 runs for a total of 7-99 off the mandatory 35 overs.
Rakin Rahman, playing his first game in a couple of years, began the chase brightly with some great offside play behind square, then unleashed some powerful off drives. Some lofted shots were also necessary to overcome the lush outfield. Rakin’s dismissal on 46 with the score 3-61 (14), was followed by a couple of unnecessary run outs for a brief stumble. First Kovacs, then Croft and Yap saw the Lions home with 11 overs to spare.
Sydney Uni Lions 4-100:
R Rahman 46
M Freeman 12
T Croft 11*
Cranbrook Old Boys 7-99:
A Kirubanandan 3-32 (8)
P Adikirage 2-25 (6)
W Sammuri 2-6 (5)
O Ottosan 1-11 (4)