Hayden Kerr is back
Sydney University has been badly affected by injuries this season, with five or six First Graders missing in action at any given time. The Students have still found ways to win – or, at any rate, to win enough to hold on to second place on the competition table – but will be grateful for Hayden Kerr’s return in Round Five. The sciatica that kept Kerr out of the early matches still prevents him from bowling, but he eased back into action with 67 from 75 balls against Wests on Saturday, followed by a sharp catch at slip to remove Nick Cutler. His innings – slightly subdued, by his standards – was decorated with several clean, powerful drives but, unusually, he was out-Kerred in the early stages of the innings by Charlie Dummer. The compact left-hander has played several handy white-ball innings this season, all with a wonderfully simple method. If the ball is full, he drives through the line for four; if it’s short, it disappears through the leg side with a shot that wouldn’t look out of place on a baseball diamond; and he occasionally blocks the straight ones. He scored 56 of his opening stand of 88 with Kerr, facing only 42 balls. Damien Mortimer then carried on his good form, spanking 94 from 105. Mortimer’s batting is normally classically orthodox, but late in his innings he diversified, playing a series of scoops and reverse sweeps before sacrificing a likely hundred by skying leg-spinner Tom Brooks to midwicket. Wests were briefly in the hunt to chase down their target of 306, when Josh Clarke and James Psarakis built a threatening partnership, but once that stand was broken by Nivethan Radhakrishnan, there was little more resistance. Not for the first time this season, Ben Joy (3-17) was the pick of the bowlers for the Students.
Hamish Dunlop has a First Grade cap
Hamish Dunlop is in his sixth season with Eastern Suburbs. He has spent most of that time as the Fifth Grade wicket-keeper, playing a bit in Fourths and, three times last season, in Thirds. And he now holds Easts’ First Grade cap number 713. He was chosen in Fifths on Saturday, and made his way down to Raby No3, but his day took an unexpected twist when Baxter Holt was injured in First Grade on the adjacent oval. Holt, who has had a shockingly unlucky season with injuries, was batting with great determination, repairing Easts’ innings from the early wreckage of 4 for 19, when a ball crashed through the grille of his helmet and struck him in the face. Holt retired hurt for 26, was sent away for a head injury assessment (he’s bruised, but OK), and the umpires agreed that the Dolphins were allowed a concussion replacement. Easts had Hamish Morrison keeping wicket in Third Grade on Raby No2, but he was already in the field, and there was no one else in his side willing or able to take over behind the stumps. So Hamish Dunlop was called up from Fifths. Batting at ten, he chipped in with a handy five not out, to lift Easts to 9-185; then he caught Jonathon Sammut from Henry Thornton’s bowling in the third over of Campbelltown’s innings. That was his only dismissal, but he did a tidy job with the gloves, allowing no byes in the innings, as Campbelltown folded for 131, with Thornton (4-17) and captain Jack Preddey (3-18) doing most of the damage. Next week, Easts expect Peter Nevill to return from State duty, and if that occurs, the club’s last three First Grade keepers will have been a Shield player (Holt), a Test player and… Hamish Dunlop - who may well be back in Fifths next week, but already has one of the season’s better stories to tell.
Caelan Maladay can be destructive
Randwick-Petersham quick Caelan Maladay has made an inconsistent start to the season, but when it all clicks, he’s a handful. On Saturday, the premiers were defending a decent, but by no means imposing, total of 9 for 244 against Penrith. Cameron Weir put the Panthers on track with a lively 52, and then Henry Railz punched a brisk fifty to put his side within reach of the points. Maladay bowled the 44th over of the innings, and he was all over the place: ten runs came from it, including three wides. With five overs remaining, Penrith needed 20 runs with five wickets in hand, and the two batsmen at the crease had already shared a partnership of 97. Wise betting at this stage was on Penrith. At which point, Maladay turned the game on its head. With the third ball of the 46th over, he held a high return catch from Railz. Two balls later, he bowled Josh Lalor. Then, in his next over, he grabbed three wickets in four balls: Luke Hodges was caught by Tim Affleck, Ryan Fletcher missed a straight one and was trapped in front, and Jordan Browne holed out to Riley Ayre. Maladay’s analysis in his last two overs read: 01w1w1 and 1ww1w. Five for five in eleven balls, and Randwick-Petersham were home by 12 runs. Not everything about Maladay satisfies purists – he has been known to bowl with his hair in a ponytail and (slightly more importantly) makes minimal use of his front arm. But already in his short career, he’s shown a talent for taking wickets in clusters.
We just lost our excuse to visit @srwatson33
Regular readers of Five Things will remember our sad obsession with the Instagram account @srwatson33, that baffling combination of cricket, motivational philosophy, tourist snaps of India and bizarre product endorsements. Sadly, we no longer have any excuse to go there, now that Shane Watson has announced that he’s hanging up his boots (350 Not Out FF from Asics, in case you were wondering).
For much of his career, Watson was an easy target for his critics. In England, especially, his front pad often seemed like a giant magnet for the ball; his self-belief made him the most unwisely optimistic user of the Decision Review System; his bulky frame became increasingly injury-prone; and he bore a disconcerting resemblance to a Disney character. A harsh but fair analysis of his Test career is that he under-achieved slightly – although had his body allowed him to continue bowling at the pace he produced early in his career, he might well be remembered as one of the game’s very best all-rounders. In white-ball cricket, though, he was consistently excellent over a very lengthy period.
And you won’t hear a bad word spoken about him in the Shire. Watson joined Sutherland back in 2011-12, and over the last eight years he turned out 25 times for the club, scoring 1220 runs at an average just under 50. The numbers aren’t alarming – they’re more or less what you’d expect of an international – but they don’t properly reflect his impact. Watson was a brutal destroyer of any bowling that fell short of the highest class (google Simon Kerrigan for evidence of this) and some of his efforts for the Sharks were extraordinary. There was his 114 not out in a T20 game against Mosman, which occupied only 53 balls, no fewer than 16 of which vanished over the fence. But arguably his bigger contribution was off the field. He trained with the club, passed on his knowledge and experience, and did it all without ego. One longtime Sutherland member describes him as “the best bloke I ever met in cricket”. He’s earned an enjoyable retirement.
Gordon Fourths can bowl a bit
Oscar Turner has five wickets at 2.80. Dave Monaghan has four wickets at 3.00. Oliver Clarke has five wickets at 7.60. These are not the bowling averages from the Chatswood Under-9s.
Enjoying the unseasonally wet start to the season, and a couple of distinctly dodgy tracks, Gordon’s Fourth Grade have so far disposed of their opponents for scores of 51 and 85. The batting is less convincing – so far, no one has passed 24 – but, truly, when you’re chasing 51 and 85, how good does it need to be? Gordon has jumped to an early lead in the competition with two bonus-point wins from as many starts.
We are, though, a bit concerned about the form of spinner Prahlad Iyer. Dropped from Thirds after one game, he produced the hopelessly expensive figures of 2-14 against Mosman on Saturday. Better sharpen up, son. There’s such a place as Fifth Grade, you know.