Page 18 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club Yearbook 2016-17

They were all out for 78, 4 runs short of our score, but the day wasn’t over yet. Justin was the star of the day with 5/22 off 21 amazing overs. Finally, Michael Banner and Ashane De Silva were sent in to which Hornsby hoped they would get quick wickets and go for the outright win. This was to no avail however, as Ashane turned it on and decided to play T20 cricket and finished with 51 not out off 14 overs, to which Hornsby called it off and we officially claimed the premiership finishing on 0/68. Well done to our boys and to Hornsby who put up a fight the whole way.
C1 Grade
WPHC 8/135 defeated Normanhurst-Warrawee 131 @ Auluba Oval 25th & 26th March 2017 Day 1 – WPHC 1/12 Vs Normanhurst-Warrawee 131
We had an interesting start to proceedings today when our turf ground at Roseville (why were we placed out there??!!) was deemed too wet for play, so we moved to Auluba Park which was a far more palatable proposition. Due to some overnight rain, we lost an hour, before tossing and electing to bowl. Footnote: Skipper Andrew Fiedler cannot EVER remember winning a toss & bowling, so maybe has turned the corner in his Captaincy!
Our bowlers got off to a bit of a rusty start having not bowled in a game since 18 Feb with the recent weather. Some wayward short bowling was greeted with open arms by the Normo top order and they got off to a good start before we made our first breakthrough with a fine run-out to Ray Khamis. The Normo top order saw off our fast men in the first session and looked threatening against our spinners, reaching a dangerous 3/112 midway through the afternoon.
Then came the game changer. Matty Marsden caught a screamer taking one of those over-the-shoulder catches running back to take a skier, and we lifted as a result. We proceeded to crash through the Normo middle and lower order over the next 12 overs, with Matty taking 3/18, Kyle Townsend 2/28 and Semonn Oleksyn 3/12 our main destroyers. We finished off the Normo innings taking 7/19 in this period. Stanton Tam continued his great catching this season snaring 4 catches while Mat, Aaron Hawkins and Fieds took one each.
We had 13 overs to negotiate to finish play and lost the vital wicket of Stanton. We have a deep batting order and remain very confident of running down the remaining 120 runs that will see us defend our C1 premiership victory from last year.
Day 2
We resumed day 2 with all day to score a further 120 with 9 wickets in hand on a very slow Auluba ground. Rahul Mucherla had done the job of night watchman perfectly for the 3rd C1 Final in a row now, and with the in-form Mat Marsden, they saw out the first 20 overs of the day before both fell in quick succession – Mat for 25 & Rahul for 20.
At 3/48, we had to rebuild to ensure our young line-up weren’t too pressured at the end of the run-chase. Rohit Ninan (19) and Eric Junkkari (20) added a further 36 runs in the next 28 overs, taking few risks whilst putting the bad ball away. When Eric departed, Normanhurst made their last roll of the dice and took the new ball. It paid dividends as our nerves started to get the better of us. In a reflection of the Normanhurst 1st innings, we lost 5/25 and the supposedly comfortable run chase became extremely tense.
At 8/109, Aaron Hawkins joined skipper Andrew Fiedler and the boys really knuckled down. The opposition were getting rowdy and were appealing for everything, but the boys resolved to see things to the end. Azza was the aggressor and patiently waited for the right balls to hit, finally finishing the match with 10 runs off the final 3 balls – the last of them sailing over square leg for 4, as he made the most vital 20 runs of his career.
The relief was enormous and celebrations were well deserved. Though we were Minor Premiers, it was a very tight competition throughout the year, so we never felt like the competition was ours to lose.
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