Page 24 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club

We then dug in given some solid Opposition bowling, runs were very hard to come by and as the season has panned out our woes continued and we lost a string of early wickets, mainly due to some good bowling and fielding. At 4-35 off 25 overs we were in heaps of trouble.
Ani and Ayush then put on 48 for the 5th wicket to get us back into the game. Ayush (12) was dismissed by another great catch....in the outfield, the story of his season. Unfortunately Ani (38) soon followed...just after the drinks break - 6/93 off 45 overs....just not enough runs.
However, the real pleasing thing about this side is the never say die attitude....in hot and humid conditions and with a very slow outfield, partnerships of 28 (7th wicket), 41 (8th wicket), 6 (9th wicket) and 13 for the (10th wicket) saw us all out for 181, a few minutes before stumps off 79.3 overs. We almost lasted the whole day.
Our best effort of the season by far....Contributions from Ram 35, Sach 21 no, Ross 13, Mike 7, and Anik 3.....(yes Anik who fractured his Ankle 6 weeks ago and was given the all clear by his specialist as long as no running) got us there. Also Kudos to Ram who retired hurt after fainting, then returning to the crease after a good rest and cool down.
Running 8 twos in a very short time, was just too much...very scary for umpires, fielders and his team mates....be rest assured he has recovered well and is all ok for tomorrow.
So we enter day 2 in a solid position. We know the field is slow as we only hit 10 boundaries in 80 overs... Looking forward to a solid bowling and fielding performance to protect 181 runs.
Team is excited about what Sunday will bring.
Day 2
Premiers.....yet to sink in....and today was a comeback to remember.
With a healthy score set on Day 1....we were buoyant and ready to go. During our team huddle on day 2 we talked about staying tough, patient and seizing the critical moments when they came.....prophetic.
Ram and Happy started strongly and runs were difficult to come by in the early overs.....an early wicket, when Happy clean bowled one of the openers was exactly what we needed. Hornsby 1-7 off 6 overs.
With this dismissal, both Hornsby batsmen then decided to go on a counter attack. With the ground playing significantly faster, and a large number of aerial cuts and edges over the slips the score advanced quicker than we had hoped.
At the first Drinks break the score had progressed to -39 off just 14 overs......we were not bowling or fielding badly....the batting was aggressive and luck was with the batting side. At 1-49 Hornsby were cruising when Ani surprised the batsman with a slower ball that was scooped up to Mid off...a great catch to Muthindra.....Hornsby 2-49 off 19 overs. Our bowling was steady until the first break but we had no more success Hornsby at the session 1 break 2-59......with their best 2 batsmen in......
The second session was a real tough one for us....no wickets, 30 overs and 73 runs. Both Hornsby batsmen intent on protecting their wickets, pushing for quick singles, and running plenty of 2’s.
Buoyed by loud support from the sideline for every run the batters became more confident, and try as we could things did not work out for us. Unfortunately the Hornsby opener was dropped 3 times in the session, our fielding got a little sloppy and the energy was disappearing in humid conditions. At 2-122 off 49 overs the 2nd break could not come quick enough for us. Heads were definitely down. Hornsby needing just 60 runs to win with 8 wickets remaining and an unbroken second wicket partnership of 73.
But how things can change.......as we walked onto the field after the break we talked about being tough and making it hard as possible for the batters....the strategy was to bring everyone in, and bring our opening bowlers back on to try frustrate the batters and force an error.
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