It’s all going off out there
For about one hundred and thirty years, the opening round of the First Grade season has gone like this (unless it rained, and apart from the occasional season that opened with a one-day game): somewhere between six and ten games have been played, in which half the teams have won the toss and batted on slow pitches, and ground their way towards a satisfactory total at the end of the first day. Normally the season wouldn’t even have started yet: this year, already, after a single day’s play, 16 top-grade games have been decided. It’s going to take some getting used to. “Five things” doesn’t seem like quite enough this week. We need about fifteen, except we didn’t really learn them, because it’s too hard to keep up. Did you see that Jason Sangha scored a really fast hundred? We’d tell you more, but we’re out of space.
It's also going to take some time to get used to how the different clubs look this season. It has been many years since there have been so many off-season player movements. The Sydney team that fronted up for the first match this season contained only two of the players who appeared in Firsts for the club in Round 15 last season. Players are flying in all directions and it’s no surprise that PlayHQ can’t keep up. “Fill-in” had an absolute blinder on the weekend, turning the course of several matches.
The Students are back in the groove
A revamped Sydney University side wasted no time getting back in the groove, fighting past Sydney and North Sydney to sit at the top of Pool B. New recruit Will Salzmann made an immediate impact, cracking four sixes in his match-winning 68 (from 38) against Sydney. Salzmann bowled well too, picking up 3-34 against Sydney and 3-33 in the win over North Sydney. Jack Attenborough made a quiet start for his new club with the bat, but played an unexpected part in the game against North Sydney when he was entrusted with the ball. Attenborough played 79 First Grade matches for University of NSW, in which he bowled just a single over (which went for 13 runs). For reasons unclear to anyone but the University captain (“pace off the ball”, maybe?), Attenborough was brought into the attack for the sixth over of North Sydney’s innings, to send down very slow deliveries that a person in a generous mood might call off-breaks, to one of the longest hitters in the competition, Justin Avendano. It felt borderline suicidal, and looked like it when Avendano launched Attenborough’s third ball over the fence. But two balls later, Avendano whacked a catch straight to Salzmann, and in his next over Attenborough trapped the dangerous James Greenslade lbw. He ended up with a highly improbable 2-14 from three overs, after which it almost made sense that University collected the points (in the last over of its chase) through the bat of Devlin Malone, who carved Hugh Sheriff away for the three decisive runs.
Axel Cahlin spoiled Steve O’Keefe’s homecoming
One of the happier off-season stories was the return of Steve O’Keefe to Hawkesbury, where (presumably) he’ll play out the end of his career at the club where it all began. O’Keefe didn’t bowl badly in his first match back (he never does), but he was upstaged by Axel Cahlin, who monopolised the scoring to such an extent that he hit 101 not out in a Gordon total of 1 for 139. Tym Crawford contributed only 10 to an opening stand of 54, and Louis Bhabra made 17 in an unbroken second-wicket partnership of 85. It took Cahlin six balls to get off the mark, and he made only two runs from the first 12 balls he faced, but then he accelerated spectacularly. The 15th over of the innings, bowled by Adrian Van der Nieuwboer, went for 19 runs, ending with two successive sixes, both hoicked over the leg side. When the 19th over began Gordon needed six to win and Cahlin was 93. He flat-batted the first ball from seamer Javed Ahmed Mohammed through the off side to the fence, blocked the second, and dabbed the third away to the third man boundary, bringing up both Gordon’s first win, and the first century of the new season.
St George look fairly decent at full strength
Although St George wasn’t quite at full strength, because one of their Test players (Moises Henriques) played in Round 1, then made way for the other (Kurtis Patterson) to play in Round 2. Their two Shield openers, Blake Squared (Nikitaras x Macdonald), played both matches, in which Sutherland and Blacktown were swept aside pretty ruthlessly. Most of the damage was done by the absurdly consistent Macdonald, who blasted 73 from 44 (six 6s) against Sutherland and 83 from 39 (six more 6s) against Blacktown. Henriques chipped in with 2-15 and 42 from 29 (three 6s) against Sutherland. Pick of the bowlers, as so often in recent seasons, was the hostile Peter Francis.
Austin Waugh came back
Another good-news story from opening day was the reappearance – after a prolonged break – of Austin Waugh in the Sutherland side. Waugh took a couple of years out of the game, apparently because it had stopped being fun. He was useful rather than spectacular in his comeback games – a couple of handy short innings, some important wickets and some sharp work in the field. He was lively with the bat against Fairfield, spanking Australian Under-19 spinner Cameron Frendo through cover, pulling and slashing boundaries from Yuva Nishchay and then launching Nishchay high over midwicket for six. And, yes, he was dropped, and yes, there were a couple of airswings. But that isn’t really what matters – what counts is that he rediscovers the simple pleasures of putting bat to ball, striving to win, and drinking something cold afterwards.