Oli Zannino possibly feels like a Tooheys
There was a remarkable match at North Sydney Oval, where Justin Avendano crunched his second hundred within a week, yet ended up on the losing side. The ground is in great shape – flat pitch, fast outfield – but the pitch was set on the edge of the square, which created one unreasonably short boundary and made life particularly uncomfortable for the bowlers. Brent Atherton and Avendano got the Bears away to a rapid start, Mac Jenkins batted brightly for fifty, and the innings was topped off by James Aitken, who smashed the first ball he faced over the short boundary despite looking as though he had accidentally wandered in from a nearby Fathers v Sons match. In the end, a target of 302 was probably no more than par, but it looked better than that when Matt Alexander reduced the Students to 2-12. Jordan Gauci and Liam Robertson dragged their side back into the contest with a stand of 130. Robertson drove imperiously on his way to 89 from 67, continually teasing the long-off fieldsman by punching the ball just out of reach. But the match swung back in North Sydney’s favour when Jack James removed both Gauci and Robertson in quick succession. Ryan McElduff, previously short on runs this season, immediately found touch and received good support from Charles Litchfield and Dugald Holloway. But Holloway was given run out (apparently on the theory that if it’s a direct hit, it must be out) and University still needed 53 from six overs. The new batsman, keeper Oli Zannino, was only making his First Grade debut because the Cummins brothers aren’t very particular about who they have dinner with, and he had no form at all with the bat – over the last season and a half, he averages ten in Seconds. And yet he blasted his side home, thumping 33 from 16 balls. Twice in an over he heaved Sam Alexander over the long boundary, and with three needed to win, he cracked the cleanest of pull shots over mid-wicket from Matt Alexander. He’s way too young to remember this, of course, and so are you, but in about 1975 there was a very successful TV advertisement for Tooheys, in which the New South Wales keeper, Steve Rixon, goes in last and needs five to win from the last ball. Dennis Lillee drops one short, and you can guess the rest. As the jingle goes: “How do you feel when the ball leaves the field and clears the pickets on the way?”
It’s a pretty happy Christmas for Northern District
There was nothing very dramatic about Northern District’s win over Gordon on Saturday. The Rangers’ pace attack – Ross Pawson, Lachlan Fisher, Scott Rodgie and Chad Soper – suffocated Gordon’s batting and then, after the loss of two early wickets, Corey Miller and Lachlan Shaw added 134 to put the result beyond doubt. It was the kind of clinical, well-organised cricket that has given NDs seven wins from as many games, and a clear lead in the competition at the Christmas break. Interestingly, there’s only one Rangers batsman (Scott Rodgie) in the top 35 run-scorers in the competition and only two bowlers (Pawson and Rodgie again) in the top 35 wicket-takers. But they have depth, everyone does his job and they play as a team. They may need to play a little differently when the two-day games start – but so will everyone else, and by then NDs should have a finals berth well and truly secured.
Mark Stoneman is back, and he appears to be in reasonable nick
As England’s average opening partnership in Tests this year is 8.3 (or something – we made that last bit up), there was added interest to the game at Waverley Oval, where two England openers of the recent past faced up against each other. The win, by TKO, went to St George’s Mark Stoneman, who lashed 150 from only 131 balls. Sam Robson hardly failed, reaching 47 for Easts, but it was Stoneman’s innings that defined the game. Of course, he did have the advantage of facing Robson’s bowling, which he twice launched over the fence. Stoneman and Luke Bartier shared a third-wicket stand of 212 in 38 overs, by which time the game was pretty much out of reach for Easts. They did put up a spirited reply, but no-one made the big score that might have made the contest closer.
There’s a new Gladys in town
And so we head to Fourth Grade, where competition for the Gladys Berejiklian Sudden and Unexpected Collapse of the Week Award is fierce. There was a highly commendable bid by the Gordon Fourths who, chasing Northern District’s 140, reached 1-29 before crashing to 55 all out, losing their last five wickets in 13 balls without adding a single run. That was good, but not quite as good as Randwick-Petersham’s effort against Sutherland. Batting first, RPs added 12 runs without any alarms before Joshua Wiseman, playing his first game in Fourth Grade, removed Ben Chaplin, Chaik Hathurusinghe and Joshua Bird to complete a hat-trick. Then Tom Vandermaal struck twice, and RPs had lost 5-12. But what makes this one special is that it was that rarest of all beasts, the Winning Gladys. Because RPs scrambled together 119, and then dismissed Sutherland for just 111, with the evergreen Nigil Singh snaring 4-26.
The Green Shield is on
This season’s Green Shield season is underway, and in the second round, Hayden McCarthy of University of NSW enjoyed what The Grade Cricketer would regard as the ultimate success available to a cricketer below circuiting age: 105 not out and 4-34, in a team that lost. McCarthy’s heroics were overshadowed by Penrith’s opener Leo Astill, who slaughtered an extraordinary 162 from 112 balls, which included 12 sixes and 10 fours. Astill, who hit hard and, mostly straight, doubles up as Penrith’s Fifth Grade wicket-keeper and, by coincidence, he had played McCarthy in Fifths the day before. On that occasion, McCarthy bowled him for 29 in a game the Bees won. It’s fair to say that it didn’t take Astill long to get his revenge. Play their cards right, and these two could be trying to Alpha each other for years to come.