The Students keep finding ways to win
Last week we discussed Sydney University’s ability to win matches from unpromising situations. Exhibit B is now last weekend’s match with Fairfield-Liverpool, and a team certainly knows it’s in an unpromising situation when it finds itself relying on Caelan Maladay’s batting. Before Saturday, from 59 games in First Grade, Maladay had achieved a highest score of 17 and a batting average of exactly 7. So when he went to the crease with the score at 7 for 140, Fairfield had some justification for feeling confident. But Maladay blocked, nudged, edged, poked and generally refused to get out. He even latched on to a full delivery from Arjun Nair and cracked it through long-on for four. He reached 21 before spooning left-arm spinner Cameron Frendo to long-off, and his partnership with Tim Cummins lifted University to a total of 191 which, though below par, was at least defendable. Fairfield’s openers made a lightning start, ripping 33 runs from the first four overs of their innings. But then Rex Greaves, with his first delivery, removed Brock Fitton with the help of a sharp, low catch by Cummins. Greaves and the spinners, Devlin Malone and Dylan Hunter, applied the brakes on the middle order, and Kieran Tate (3-39) and Caelan Maladay (2-39) took wickets at regular intervals, so that Fairfield was bowled out 42 runs short of its target. Despite the importance of Maladay’s contribution, the clear player of the match was University captain Cummins, who held his side’s innings together with an unbeaten 62 (during which he passed 5000 runs in First Grade), before completing five dismissals behind the stumps. It was the third time in Cummins’ First Grade career that he’s scored fifty or more as well as dismissing five batsmen in an innings.
Sutherland are nobody’s pushovers
In a round full of upsets, perhaps the biggest surprise was Sutherland not just beating, but thumping, UTS North Sydney. The Bears went into the game 18 places above the Sharks on the ladder, and that didn’t seem likely to change when Sutherland prodigy Sam Konstas slapped the second legitimate ball of the day straight to cover (leaving him stranded on 902 runs for Sutherland before Christmas). But Jarryd Biviano remains a very dangerous white-ball batsman, and with good support from Englishman Jack Leaning, he launched a highly successful counter-attack. Leaning fell just short of his fifty, hitting a return catch to Mac Jenkins, but Biviano played so well that his 109 came from only 101 deliveries, with 10 fours and three sixes. It was his eighth First Grade century for Sutherland. Set a target of 269, North Sydney was pegged back by early wickets from Andrew Ritchie and Liam Hehir, and while James Rew, James Greenslade and Tim Reynolds all made solid starts, the Bears never caught up with the run rate they needed. Tom Straker bowled accurately and thoughtfully and cashed in one some desperate strokes late in the day, returning the best figures (4-22) of his short First Grade career so far. The win still leaves the young Sutherland side propping up the bottom of the competition table, but it also sends a signal that they can’t be taken lightly.
There are two theories about Ryan O’Beirne’s performance against Manly on the weekend.
First theory: he had a shocker. Easts lost by 80 runs, and O’Beirne’s ten overs were plundered for 81 runs. He bowled eleven wides (some of which were very, very wide) and a no-ball, so he personally donated two extra overs to Manly. His first over was an 11-baller. Also, he could use a haircut.
Second theory: he had a blinder. He took five wickets, all good ones, in only ten overs. He produced sharp bounce and went past the bat several times. Also, he hit 26 not out from only 23 balls. What more do you want?
Luke Webb can be a handful
It’s probably not unfair to say that Campbelltown’s left-armer Luke Webb isn’t the first player who springs to mind when people talk about new-ball bowlers in Sydney (if that’s something people actually do). And yet, and yet… every so often, Webb has a day when the ball swings late for him, and he suddenly becomes a very difficult proposition. He had one of those days on Saturday. Campbelltown was defending a solid score of 7-224, built around Nick Appleton’s 76. But Webb scuttled St George’s reply almost before it began. In his first over, Nicholas Stapleton clipped an inducker off his pads straight to Jackson Isakka behind square; Luke Bartier was surprised by bounce and nicked off to slip; Kaleb Phillips shouldered arms to his first ball, only to watch an inswinger clatter back his off stump. St George at that point were 3-4, and Webb had 3-2. Tom Vane-Tempest prevented the hat-trick, but Webb ended the day with 4-33, and the Ghosts took the points by the very comfortable margin of 91 runs.
We have the conference finalists
The conference semi-finals in the Harry Solomons Little Bash produced some unusually fascinating contests. In the Thunder Conference, Sydney University faced the only team to have beaten them in the shortest format this season – Penrith. On that occasion, however, Penrith had been turbo-charged by Sam Billings, who is now off on BBL duty, and it was the Students who took control of the game through a belligerent partnership of 116 between Dylan Hunter (63 off 39) and Damien Mortimer (58 off 39). Tim Cummins (40) faced only 19 balls but hit four of them over the boundary, and Penrith was faced with a tough target of 197. Tyran Liddiard looked dangerous early on, but was bowled by debutant Hugo Ikeda’s second ball in the top grade. Ikeda also removed Jordan Watson in his first over, had 3-4 after bowling seven balls, and finished a memorable day with 4-20 as Penrith folded for 119. Blacktown upset Bankstown thanks to Eknoor Singh’s high-class 97 from 57. Bankstown had the firepower to chase down 215, but Nic Carruthers was run out second ball, and when Ryan Felsch fell for 36 off 19, Blacktown took complete control. It probably wasn’t an upset that Sydney defeated St George, but it was certainly a surprise that the Tigers defended a total of only 134. Alex Glendenning knocked the top off the innings, and the Saints middle order subsided to Craig Di Blasio’s left arm darts. And at Coogee, Gordon outbatted title-holders Randwick-Petersham, blasting 4-221 thanks to Dale McKay’s 99 not out from 53 and Tym Crawford who, despite an injury that prevented him from bowling, whacked 89 from 43. Early wickets to Ben Parsons (4-23) reduced Randwick-Petersham to 6 for 59, after which Ben Mitchell (67) and Ashley Burton (55 not out) saved face, but not the game. The conference finals will be held on 15 January.