Devlin Malone is in decent form
What with Liam Robertson’s retirement, Dugald Holloway’s injury and Charlie Dummer’s holiday, the Sydney University side has rather a different look to it at the moment, but the Students are still finding ways to win – many of which are called Devlin Malone. Late on the second afternoon at Pratten Park, Western Suburbs looked well placed to challenge University’s target of 363. Josh Clarke had compiled an outstanding century, and opener Arnav Raina – making his debut – had played impressively to reach 90. Wests had worked their way up to one for 196 – another 168 needed with nine wickets in hand. But Rex Greaves and Kieran Tate each grabbed a wicket, and then Malone went to work, taking six of the last seven wickets to fall and ending up with 6-93 to seal the win. He did even better the following day. University set Fairfield an imposing target of 212 in the Little Bash, after Damien Mortimer and Dylan Hunter shared a furious third-wicket stand of 171 (the second-highest third wicket partnership in the history of the competition, and University’s highest in T20 cricket for any wicket). Hunter traumatised Jake Wholahan, moving from 79 to 103 by lashing the off-spinner for four successive sixes in the arc between mid-wicket and long-on. Any hope Fairfield had of approaching the target was snuffed out in Malone’s first over, when he grabbed two wickets. After three overs, he had five for five, and although his last over yielded up two singles, his 5-7 remained the cheapest five-wicket haul in the history of the competition. Malone was Sydney’s leading wicket-taker last season; already this year he has another 25 wickets. His recent appearance in the NSW Second XI shouldn’t be the last representative match he plays this season.
It was a good week for batting
It took a while, but the sun came out, and Sydney’s batsmen rediscovered how to play two-day cricket. Round Four was full of tall scores and improbable chases: Gordon came within two strokes of overhauling North Sydney’s 415, and Mosman ran up its highest ever score – 8 for 521 – only for Blacktown to reply with 9 for 385. Parramatta chased down Campebelltown’s 323, with Ryan Hackney’s 144 trumping 117 from Toby Flynn-Duncombe. Brent Williams racked up 188 in Penrith’s 8 for 353, but the game ended in a stalemate, Jack Attenborough hitting 85 as University of NSW reached 8 for 312. In the early rounds, there were plenty of rain-affected draws: in Round Four, there were four draws in First Grade simply because it was too hard to take wickets.
It's a funny game
Weird match of the round was at Asquith Oval, a ground Five Things remembers fondly because, see that red-brick house across the road? – he once hit a ball into it (although he was also hit into the trees at the northern end, so it evens out). Anyway, Fairfield began the match in dominant fashion, with Brock Fitton and Jaydyn Symmyns (sorry, Simmons) sharing a slow but steady opening stand of 141. Which is a pretty solid platform, right? Fitton, formerly of Hawkesbury, compiled his first century in First Grade, a patient 129, while Simmons contributed 62. After which, everything went pear-shaped. The first three wickets fell to Ross Pawson and Toby Gray for the addition of just one run, after which Arjun Nair and Luke Ohrynowsky left without scoring. In fact, after the openers, only keeper Max Farmer reached double figures, and Northern District was set the undemanding target of 230. Although Corey Miller departed early, David Lowery, Chris Green and Lachlan Shaw carried the score to 2 for 89, at which point only one result looked likely. But wickets kept falling at regular intervals, usually to Nair’s off-spin, and it was left to the inevitable Scott Rodgie to keep his team in the game. Rodgie couldn’t be faulted: he built handy partnerships with Ross Pawson and Chad Soper, and steered Northern Districts to within ten runs of victory. But then Soper shouldered arms to a ball from Nair that was judged to be on target. Jack Cincotta played three impeccable forward lunges, an unsuccessful leg-side flick, and was then given out lbw when pressing forward again. Rodgie was left stranded on 89, Nair ended with 5-46, and Fairfield collected the points from a rather irrational game.
Mac Jenkins would like to play Gordon every week, please
After four rounds, UTS North Sydney sits on top of the Premier Cricket ladder, largely thanks to the efforts of all-rounder Mac Jenkins. Jenkins has been a part of the North Sydney side for just over three seasons, contributing usefully without, it’s fair to say, setting the place on fire. Before this season, he’d passed fifty only twice in 41 matches, in which he’d taken 41 wickets. In the first three rounds of this season, he hadn’t taken a wicket. None of that mattered in the game against Gordon at Chatswood, which he dominated, hitting his first century in First Grade before claiming his first five-wicket haul. He wasn’t under immense pressure when he went in to bat – the Bears had already reached 3 for 199 – but he played a compact, mature innings in the final session to push his side’s total beyond 400. Jenkins has a habit of opening the bat face slightly when he drives, so that he hits the ball square, which turned out to be a highly efficient way of finding the shorter boundaries at Chatswood. But his composure with the ball was impressive. Axel Cahlin (140), Tym Crawford (66) and James Newton (67) batted so well that Gordon reached 4 for 293, and an upset looked very possible. But Jenkins – left arm orthodox spin – had Newton caught by James Rew behind the stumps, and the same combination accounted for Smit Doshi two balls later. To its credit, Gordon never stopped chasing the target, although Jenkins kept on picking up wickets. When Jenkins took the ball for the 85th over of the innings, the score stood at 8 for 405. Connor Cook hit a two and a single and then – with the field scattered and not a close fieldsman to be seen – Quincy Titterton inexplicably attempted a reverse sweep, which he feathered through to Rew. Then Nicholas Toohey spooned his second ball into the air from a leading edge, and Jenkins closed out the game with an acrobatic diving catch from his own bowling. Jenkins ended the game with 123 not out and 6-114, and if he ever has a better match in First Grade, North Sydney will probably win it by more than seven runs.
The Little Bash is warming up
We’re now three rounds in to the Harry Solomons Little Bash, and the T20 competition is starting to take shape. The biggest clash on Sunday was at Drummoyne, where Sydney played host to a Manly side stocked with BBL players. The match began according to script, with Manly holding the hosts to a modest score of 123. But Manly’s reply was suffocated at birth, with Alex Glendenning and spinner Craig Di Blasio choking the run rate and grabbing early wickets. Di Blasio bowled the dangerous Jack Edwards; Jay Lenton fell cheaply to Harry Manenti; Oliver Davies and Joel Davies got started and got out. By the time Jacob Bethell wrapped up the innings with 3-13, Manly had subsided for only 69, giving Sydney top place on the Sixers Conference ladder. Sydney University shares top place on the Thunder ladder with Bankstown, for whom the in-form Nick Carruthers smashed ten sixes in his 99 from 38 balls against Parramatta. Ryan Felsch also made a telling contribution, following his 42 from 20 balls with a spell of 3-4.