Twelve into six doesn’t go
We’re now exactly two-thirds of the way through the preliminary rounds, so it’s time to make some scientific-sounding (but actually wildly speculative) predictions about the finals. At the moment, the team in sixth place, St George, has 33 points. The Saints have a pretty tough draw, and will do well to win three of their next five matches. So the cut-off point for the top six is likely to be around 45 to 51 points. This is quite normal: in the last five seasons, the sixth placed team has managed 47, 46, 52, 53 and 49. What the hell – call it 50. The question for each side now becomes, is it possible to get 50 points? Sydney University is there already, and would need to implode quite spectacularly to miss the playoffs. Sydney (45) are virtual certainties, too, as are Manly (40). Fairfield-Liverpool has 39 points and good momentum, but a demanding draw: they need to take points from one or both of North Sydney or Bankstown in the next two rounds, which won’t be easy. Bankstown (34) has a tough draw, too, with Sydney, Fairfield and Sydney University standing between the Bulldogs and a finals spot. Easts (33) remain in touch despite a post-Christmas slump in form, and play only one side placed above them on the table in their last five games. Then there are a bunch of sides – Northern District, Randwick-Petersham, North Sydney, Gordon and Wests – huddled between 28 and 26 points, who could get through but need everything to go their way. Realistically, twelve sides remain in the hunt: if Sutherland (13th on 19) win five from five, that only gets them to 49 points – which, in this hypothetical, is not quite enough. Of course, none of this counts the potential disruptors – outrights, ties, bushfires, rain, pandemics – that could throw the most careful calculations into chaos. And if 2020 taught us anything, it’s this: if you would make the gods laugh, tell them your predictions.
But we have eight finalists already
Professional cricket is played in three formats, and Premier Cricket is meant to prepare players for professional cricket, and so we have the 50-over competition. It often feels like a bit of an afterthought, less prestigious than the Belvidere Cup and not quite as exciting as the Harry Solomons Little Bash. Yet it exists and, in recent seasons, has produced some excellent matches, usually in the finals, when the competition emerges from the belly of the First Grade competition and takes on a life of its own. At the end of five preliminary rounds, the holders of the trophy, Sydney University, finished on top again, completing their games with a clinical win over Blacktown. Blacktown made a lively start despite losing early wickets – at one stage the Mounties seemed on track to be bowled out for 150 in 25 overs. But the match assumed a more sensible tempo when spinners Devlin Malone and Nivethan Radhakrishnan applied the brakes to the middle order, and eventually a late flurry from Waqar Tareen lifted the total to 223. University was never really challenged in the chase: Charlie Dummer hammered out his third fifty in a row, Damien Mortimer played a confident, assured innings, and Tim Cummins calmly finished things off. Liam Robertson, who appeared in his 300th match for University, has now led his side to the top of the table in both First grade and the 50-over Cup. That earns University a home quarter-final against St George on 7 February. Elsewhere, Sydney will host Northern District, Manly are at home to Fairfield and last season’s runner-up, Randwick-Petersham, will play at Bankstown.
Ryan Felsch gets nervous in the nineties. But not too nervous.
In recent seasons, Sydney’s consistent success in the white ball formats has owed a good deal to Ryan Felsch’s ability to get the innings away to an explosive start. But none of his starts have been quite as dramatic as the one he made against Hawkesbury on Saturday. He launched his first two sixes in the second over of the day; carted Patrick Moore for two more in the fifth over; and slammed the last three balls of the ninth over for 4, 6 and 6. To an opening stand of 111, compiled in 11 overs, Justin Mosca contributed 19 runs. Felsch brought up his 50 from 23 balls, by smashing Abdul Kherkhah to the fence, and he then carved a succession of boundaries to race to 90 from 35 balls. At which point, he either got nervous, or the Hawks finally came up with a plan. His next eight deliveries produced only three singles – 93 from 43. And yet just when it looked as the nervous nineties had claimed another victim, Flesch blasted successive balls from Moore over the fence. He reached his hundred from 45 balls, 12 of which he deposited out of the park. After only 20 overs of the game, the question wasn’t who would win, but how many records could be broken. Felsch eventually fell for 135, from only 63 deliveries. After which, everything else was an anticlimax, although the rest of the game was distinctly weird. Steve Eskinazi smashed a century of his own, from only 67 balls, which in the context of any other game would be exceptional but, in this one, just seemed perfectly natural. Sydney’s 422 was, by some distance, the highest total ever recorded in the 50-over competition. And the Hawks themselves scored at better than a run a ball. In the end, they lost by 155 runs, even though their total of 267 would have won seven of the ten First Grade matches in the round. The whole thing was like a strange thought experiment: what would happen if we took a T20 game and played it over 50 overs?
Too many spinners are never enough
Bankstown recently named its T20 team of the decade, a side that seemed to be an attempt to answer the question, “how many left arm spinners is it possible to fit into one team?” It’s actually a pretty good reflection of Bankstown’s current white-ball strategy, which is extremely heavy on the use of left arm tweakers. Readers with memories stretching back to the 1980s will recall the time when Bankstown could field three top-class left-arm spinners (Ken Hall, David Freedman and Paul Talbot – or, if you prefer, Emu, Freddy and Straws), one of whom was usually packed off to Second Grade. Well, today, they’d all get a game. Northern District did well on Saturday to restrict Bankstown to 218, of which Daniel Nicotra thumped 83 in good time. But while Tom Felton and Toby Gray bowled neatly, they were eclipsed by Bankstown’s spin pair, Ben LeBas (2-33) and Ben Taylor (3-24), and after Ben Davis was dismissed for a quickfire 35, no other batsman could get moving. There was even time for Nicotra to pick up a wicket with his leg-breaks. LeBas and Taylor haven’t usually run through sides this season, but they’re extremely economical – between them, they’ve gone for fewer than three an over. On the rare occasions when they’ve been more expensive (such as the Round 9 match with Parramatta), Bankstown has lost. Bankstown has two white-ball finals coming up (the T20 against the Bees on Australia Day and the 50-over quarter-final with Randwick-Petersham). Anyone looking to beat them will need to come up with a plan to score at four an over or better when the spinners are on.
Param Uppal is consistent
Three years have now passed since Param Uppal was chosen, perhaps prematurely, to make his Sheffield Shield debut. He’s now 22, and playing with growing confidence and assurance. His unbeaten 76 against Sutherland on Saturday helped to push Fairfield-Liverpool into the top four, and he now has 574 runs in all formats this season at an average of 57.40. He’s done his without recording a century – he still has only one First Grade hundred to his name – instead, he’s passed fifty five times, as well as hitting a 46 and a 49 not out. This may not be the kind of scoring that attracts the attention of selectors, but it’s immensely valuable to his club. His innings on Saturday was full of crisp drives, fierce pulls and the occasional dirty slog at Pushpinder Singh’s leg breaks. His bowling remains a handy option, and he looks a much stronger all-round cricketer than he was at the time of his callup for the Blues.