Page 80 - West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club

UNDER 15 – TEAM REPORTS
U15 Purple
After an agonising loss in the previous years semi final the start of the 2020/2021 season couldn’t come around quick enough for the Purple team. This year we welcomed a number of new players including our first female team member and all slotted into the team as if they’d been there for years.
The pre Christmas period saw the team perform strongly building each week winning 6 out 7 matches
with the only loss being to the defending premiers Hornsby Green. The standout performance during this period was the 195 run opening partnership between Himantha Walawage (97 no ) and Oscar Irwin (85 no) against Hornsby Gold.
The post Christmas period saw the team again play well winning 3 with only 1 loss to CHRSL in the last round. The strong performances by all team members during the season saw Purple finish the regular season as minor premiers with a tough finals series to follow.
Unfortunately the following 2 weeks saw mother nature intervene washing out both the semi final against WPH Blue and the grand final the following week against Hornsby Green. The resulting washout saw the Purple team achieve their second premiership in 4 years and the results are a credit to the team as a whole. They showed great resilience coming from behind a number of times and played with great spirit and as a team in general. It was pleasing to see the comraderie the team showed right through the season.
U15 Orange
U15 Orange had 12 returning players from the previous season and for 2020/21 we were joined by Leo Herring (from Castle Hill and former Orange player) and Shriram Raveendran (from the Red team) bringing us a squad of 14 eager young men ready to start the season.
Some early pre-season training showed its worth with a good win against Hornsby Gold in the opening round. The following week saw the boys come up against premiers Hornsby Green and had it not been for an ugly amount of extras the boys would have come close to beating one of the best teams in the comp. A run of losses saw renewed effort at training with a particular focus on extras and not giving our opposition any freebies. And despite losing to Castle Hill in round 5, it was pleasing to see that our focus at training was paying off and the boys gave away only six extras for the entire match, the lowest in any junior or senior game in the district that round.
A win against Berowra and a really hard-fought win against Blue saw us remain in contention for the finals. Three tough losses followed, tough because all three games went right down to the wire and the boys were incredibly unlucky to lose all three. Our biggest ever team total saw the boys get a big win against Mt Colah in the last game of the season.
Despite not making the finals the boys should hold their heads high. They are one of the only teams in the competition with no rep players but their effort and their attitude each week sees them compete at a high level. Their respect and support of each other, and the game, makes them an absolute pleasure to coach.
Liam Cunningham- our captain led the team well all season, his record for winning the toss is amazing! After focusing on improving his batting he was rewarded with 75 runs in the final match of the season which was no doubt a highlight
Ryan Diblasio- our vice-captain had a standout year with the ball, 18 wickets saw him equal first in the district. Twice in two weeks he was unlucky not get a hat trick and five wickets, a superb season.
Jake Condon- always reliable, Jake batted incredibly well all year and was a worthy recipient of the batting award. Jake also proved handy with the ball with a couple of wickets off his medium pacers.
Vipul Manjunath- Vipul revealed himself as quite the strike bowler this season, devastatingly accurate with 9 wickets for the season. He also spent some time opening the batting and his ability to hold up an end frustrated many opening bowlers.
Raynaldo Howard- a quieter year from a stats point of view but always able to break a partnership with his mystery bowling! Raynaldo was deadly in the field this year with a bunch of outstanding catches.
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