Nick Larkin is still the big wicket
Sent in to bat by Gordon, Sydney University made an uneventful start against the bowling of Callum Bladen and Quincy Titterton (whose name makes us want to shout “Five points to Gryffindor” every time he takes a wicket). Then Tym Crawford turned the game on its head, attacking the stumps and grabbing four wickets before lunch to leave the Students in a desperate position. But Nick Larkin is still the big wicket, and he stood firm, batting all the way through the innings before he was last out, for 183 in a total of 269. On any other day, Crawford (5-55) would have been the star, but Larkin’s innings was ridiculously dominant, mixing calm defence with brutally effective strokeplay. He was at his best in the late stages of the innings, when he protected the tail, monopolising the strike, but still managed to take ten runs an over from the Gordon spinners. He struck 23 fours and seven 6s – 134 runs in boundaries, many of them with ferocious pull shots: he was ruthless against anything short. And it turned out to be a match-winning innings. Spare a thought for Tym Crawford, who really didn’t deserve to lose: midway through the second afternoon, he had followed his five wickets with a fifty and his side needed 69 to win with seven wickets in hand. Then Kieran Tate and the unavoidable Devlin Malone triggered a collapse in which six wickets tumbled for 13 runs. University’s second-highest scorer made 24; its best bowler conceded 124 runs, yet the Students won. It wasn’t the most logical of games. (Titterton, incidentally, finished the game without a wicket or a run – no points for Gryffindor.)
Jono Craig-Dobson bats now
If The Grade Cricketer is right, and there’s nothing better than scoring a hundred for a losing team, then Jonathon Craig-Dobson probably had a very noisy circuit on Saturday night. After 35 matches in First Grade for St George, Craig-Dobson has established himself as a very tidy swing bowler, but his batting has always remained stuck somewhere between “not really an all-rounder” and “sometimes gets a few at number nine”. Before Saturday, he’d never made it to thirty in First Grade. But when Arjun Nair bowled Blake Macdonald in the first over of St George’s innings, Craig-Dobson was sent in as nightwatchman. He completed the first part of his task, remaining unbeaten on 7 overnight, and when play resumed he helped Matthew Hopkins add 64 for the second wicket. Nair struck again to remove Hopkins, but still Craig-Dobson stuck around, carrying the score to 2 for 152 in partnership with Nick Stapleton. It wasn’t a flashy innings: he was solid in defence, left the ball alone when he could, played some punchy drives and displayed a left-hander’s preference for flicking the ball through midwicket. Fairfield, defending only 249, looked out of the contest before Nair and Yuvraj Sharma grabbed three quick wickets, St George’s top order collapsing around the unlikely figure of Craig-Dobson. With good support from the tail – which used to be him, not long before – Craig-Dobson reached his hundred from 200 deliveries, and kept St George in the game until he fell to a sharp catch at slip. For the second time in as many games, Nair cleaned up with his off-spin, finishing with 7-63. The result enabled Fairfield to leapfrog St George into the top six.
That’s probably not the last hundred you’ll see from Sam Konstas
With the greatest of respect to Jono Craig-Dobson, the maiden century with the greater long-term significance was probably the one scored at Pratten Park. In a perfect world, Sam Konstas might have preferred not to have notched his first First Grade hundred in the second innings, after losing on the first, but he had already top-scored in Sutherland’s first effort, grinding out a stubborn 68 as wickets tumbled around him. Given the opportunity to bat with greater freedom in the second dig, he crunched 112 from only 104 deliveries. At times he enjoyed a little luck against Tom Brooks’ leg breaks, but he hit the ball freely and gave his side a glimpse of a chance of stealing a reverse outright win. Usually, alarm bells go off when a young player turns out for three clubs in as many seasons (Konstas has already played for Easts and St George), but Konstas seems to have the talent, technique and temperament to build a very successful career in the game. This week he followed his hundred with selection in the NSW Under 19s, so he’s already on his way.
Thursday afternoon cricket was fun
Almost no-one remembers it, but Twenty20 cricket actually began over fifty years ago in England, where several leagues exploited the long summer twilight to play 20-over knockout competitions on weekdays after working hours. Now the Little Bash has returned T20 cricket to its distant roots, with a round of games played on a Thursday afternoon, giving plenty of supporters a reason to slip out of work a touch early. Probably the biggest game was at University Oval, where the two unbeaten sides in the Thunder Conference played each other, and Sydney University cruised past Bankstown largely thanks to Nick Larkin’s brutal 70 from 42 balls. University is all but certain to feature in the finals; but the picture is far less clear in the Sixers Conference, where four sides (St George, Gordon, Sydney and Manly) each share the lead with three wins and a loss. The pick of the games in the Sixers Conference was at David Phillips, where Manly ran up 165. University of NSW looked just off the pace against an attack including two former Test bowlers (Stephen O’Keefe and Morne Morkel) and needed 36 from the last three overs. Good overs by Joel Davies and Jake Carden turned that equation into 26 from the last over, which seemed hopeless – but the Bees got twenty of them, with Hayden McLean swiping Morkel for two sixes.
Mosman has some tough selectors
Last August, Charlie Dunnett made his first appearance for the Hampshire Second XI, against Sussex, scoring 56 before taking 3-31 with his medium-pacers. He’d already played Minor Counties cricket for Berkshire. He has a foot on the fringes of the professional game in England. And if that doesn’t scream, “might be worth a try in Fifth Grade”, then what does? That’s where Mosman put him in Round Four, and Dunnett followed his 6-48 against Blacktown by scoring 100 not out from number seven in the order. Of course, performances like that sing out “it’s a risk, but let’s see how he goes in Fours”. And in Fourth Grade last weekend, Dunnett took 3-14 and hit 46. Obviously Mosman’s selectors are hard to impress: let’s hope Dunnett doesn’t get too complacent about hanging on to his spot in Fourths.