The silly season evens things up
Several clubs fielded unfamiliar-looking sides last weekend, as they struggled to cope with the loss of players to the Big Bash and the interstate under-19 carnival. And that contributed to a number of upset results around Sydney. Blacktown beat Randwick-Petersham; Wests defended a small total against Northern District; Fairfield lost only one wicket in beating North Sydney; University of NSW crushed Mosman. None of these results was easily predictable, and together they have created a remarkably close competition table: only three points separate fourth place (University of NSW) from ninth (Bankstown). It’s too early to say that the premiers, Mosman, can’t reach the top six: it’s true that they sit in eleventh place, but they’re only a bonus-point win away from the top six. Many teams will still be scrambled in Round 9, on 7 January, and it’s likely that we’ll be no closer then to having a settled top six.
Wests upset the odds at Asquith
Possibly the biggest upset of the round was at Asquith, where Northern District needed to win at home against Wests to move up from third to second, and you would have backed them to do it when Ross Pawson struck four times in his first few overs, reducing the Magpies to 3-11 and then 4-26. But the back-up seamers were less penetrative, Liam Sparke dug in for a dogged 58, and Ollie Hing (against his old club) and Mohammad Irfan milked some handy runs from the spinners. 9 for 177 was certainly a recovery, but it looked a long way short of a challenging target, especially as Scott Rodgie made a lively start. At 1-65, Northern District was strolling towards the points. But Hanno Jacobs removed Rodgie and David Lowery in quick succession, and Wests built the pressure with tight bowling and keen fielding. One decent partnership would have been enough to get the Rangers over the line, but Tom Brooks and Josh Clarke prevented that by picking up wickets at regular intervals. With ten overs to go, Northern District needed just 33 runs with four wickets in hand, but then Pawson was stumped aiming to hit Brooks into some distant part of Hornsby, and in the next over Mitchell Crayn tried to dab Irfan to third man, but only got the ball as far as Hing’s gloves. There were two overs remaining when Ben Randall miscued Clarke to mid-on, and the entire Wests team engulfed the catcher, Arnav Raina, in celebration.
Harry Manenti is the centre of the action
It shouldn’t be possible to take four wickets and score 110 not out from 111 in a 50-over game, and lose. Harry Manenti did it. Then again, has any First Grader ever been involved in the run-outs of five of his partners in a single innings? Harry Manenti did it. He was the pick of Sydney’s bowlers against Easts, but a positive 76 from opener Nicholas Taylor lifted the Dolphins to 7-249. That target wasn’t beyond Sydney’s capabilities, but no-one stayed quite long enough with Manenti, mostly because they kept getting run out. Matt Rodgers was the first, failing to beat Taylor’s return to Max Glen; Beau McClintock was then involved in a horrendous “yes-no-sorry” mixup, wondering whether to attempt a second run after a blooped pull shot at Sam Skelly. Alex Glendenning was run out by the length of the pitch when he turned to complete a second run only to find that Manenti had never left his crease; Kain Anderson was also run out trying for a second, but failing to beat Skelly’s return. Fittingly, the game ended when Craig DiBlasio became the fifth player run out in the Tigers’ innings. All that chaos rather overshadowed two excellent performances: Manenti’s innings, which included some sweetly timed drives and four muscular sixes, and a miserly spell from Jono Cook, who applied the brakes on Sydney’s middle order.
Arjun Nair prevailed in the batfest
The match between Fairfield-Liverpool and UTS North Sydney can be summed up in a single stat: Arjun Nair 5-23, every other bowler 5-445. The Rosedale pitch was so flat – and the Fairfield batting so good – that North Sydney didn’t claim its first wicket until 212 runs were on the board, when Jaydyn Simmons was stumped for 95. Yuvraj Sharma batted through the innings for an unbeaten 131, but Fairfield didn’t accelerate as they might have, and a total of 1-253 was good without being out of reach. James Rew batted brightly in the Powerplay, Tim Reynolds hit some powerful strokes, and North Sydney might have claimed the points but for Nair’s cunning and control. Nair has developed an unusual method by which he holds his bowling arm behind his back as he approaches the batsman; whether this is designed to keep his action under control, or as some deceptive manoeuvre, isn’t clear, but it was certainly effective on Saturday.
Bowler’s name?
Northern District at least gave Wests a touch-up in Fifth Grade, although it wasn’t the fault of Wests’ opening bowler, who took 2-40 and scored a defiant 17. His name? According to PlayHQ (so who can really be sure?), it’s Veeravenkataganeshsivakrishna Prasad Gandham, which we are announcing (on the basis of absolutely no research at all) as the longest name in Premier Cricket since the days of the legendary Redfern medium pacer John Elicius Benedict Bernard Placid Quirk Carrington Dwyer.