The Sydney University Cricket Club's 1st Grade campaign is ramping up towards the season proper with an emphatic victory of UNSW in its practice match on Saturday.
Under cloudy skies and with some light early morning showers, UNSW won the toss and elected to bat first, in what has become a traditional pre-season clash.
UNSW were in trouble early as Ben Joy (2-13), Joe Kershaw (1-38) and Dugald Holloway (1-45) made in-roads to have UNSW 4-50. A determined partnership of 111 runs between UNSW skipper B Wakim (72), and middle order batsmen B McLean (55), built the innings to a strong position though.
Tight bowling by Will Somerville (0-30 from 8 overs) and Greg Mail (1-18 off 5 overs) kept the run rate down, before Liam Robertson chimed in with 2 wickets to see UNSW finish their 50 overs on 7-195.
In reply, SUCC cruised throughout the innings to peel off the required total with 7 wickets and 5 overs to spare.
NSW star Ryan Carters (38) and fan favourite, Will Hay (42) opened the SUCC account with an 85 run stand before both fell together. Grade cricket legend, Greg Mail, made the most of the final hit out to effortlessly compile 29 runs before retiring, to allow Robertson (27), Tim Ley (36no) and Ben Trevor-Jones (9no) some much needed time in the middle. Ley launching bombs in his typical fashion, his runs coming from just 24 balls with 4 sixes.
With a solid performance on the field, SUCC will enter its Round One clash with North Sydney high on confidence.
The only disappointing aspect to the day was a serious hand injury to star off-spinner Will Somerville who was in contention for a NSW berth for the Matador Cup. Our wishes are with Will for a speedy recovery.
Round One commences this Saturday, with our Season Launch scheduled for Thursday 24th at The Grandstand from 6:30pm.