Mosman’s weekend didn’t work out as planned
With two rounds to go, the composition if the top six is… still nowhere near clear. Mosman had a chance to cement its place in the six when it played Bankstown, and chose to bat first at Bankstown Oval. But it took Ryan Felsch only two balls to remove Matthew Calder, after which the Whales fell in a heap. Nick Browne stood firm for 52 overs, remaining 40 not out, but his team-mates gathered six ducks between them as Mosman was bundled out for only 75. There was no way back from there, and Bankstown completed the outright win with eight wickets in hand. Mosman’s next match, against Manly, suddenly looks very important indeed.
Wests had a big weekend
Wests, on the other hand, romped to a big win over Eastern Suburbs, jumping over Mosman to take fifth spot. And the Magpies also advanced to the final of the Limited Overs Cup. Yes, it’s still going. Usually, the First Grade Limited Overs Cup is either compellingly interesting, if your club is still in it, or a bit irrelevant, if you’ve been knocked out. But there was plenty of interest in Wests’ semi-final last Sunday, because they showed that St George can be beaten. Muhammad Irfan played a key role, removing Matt Rodgers, Ed Pollock and Blake Macdonald in his first spell to reduce St George to 3 for 26. Kurtis Patterson (87) and Nick Stapleton (85) then rebuilt the innings with a fourth-wicket stand of 172, which seemed to put their side back on top. But Irfan (5-32) and Hanno Jacobs (3-41) bowled exceptionally well at the back end of the innings, and the St George total of 239 was a little short of par. James Psarakis held the chase together with an unbeaten 77, but there was an agonising break for rain when Wests needed 27 from seven overs, with three wickets in hand. When play resumed, it took a flurry of late blows from Irfan, whose 32 not out occupied only 31 deliveries, to get Wests over the line. Irfan, who has long levers and an idiosyncratic technique, hit successive boundaries to complete a memorable match for him and a perfect weekend for his club. With two rounds remaining, Wests has one grand final appearance (against Northern District) booked, and all five grades are still able to reach the finals.
Smit Raval spoiled the fun for Randwick-Petersham
Needing to win to keep up with the top six, Randwick-Petersham couldn’t have asked for a better start: the increasingly impressive Angus McTaggart (6-31) triggered a collapse that left Blacktown in all sorts of trouble at 8 for 107. At that point, however, Smit Raval somehow managed to squeeze another 89 runs from the last two wickets, assisted by some incredibly patient blocking by Josh Boyden, who lingered around for 132 balls while scoring 27. Boyden, a brisk left-armer, was far more entertaining with the ball – he induced Blake Weymouth to prod a catch to Raval at leg slip, and had Jake Egan caught behind with a ball that angled across him. Jermey Nunan shaped a ball away from Jason Sangha, who edged behind, and at the end of the first day, Randwick-Petersham needed 150 runs with seven wickets in hand. It didn’t look all that demanding, especially when the score reached 3 for 72, but the introduction of Raval’s leg spin caused immediate chaos. Ashley Burton, leaning forward, nicked another catch to keeper Gus Small; Riley Ayre was lbw, propping forward; and when Cam Hawkins, playing back, edged to Matt Day at slip, Raval’s spell had delivered three wickets for only two runs. Blacktown won by the deceptively wide margin of 62 runs, and join Randwick-Petersham on 37 points, just three points away from sixth place.
Frankie Nicklin is on the way up
Without attracting a great deal of fanfare, Sydney University all-rounder Frankie Nicklin is enjoying the kind of season that suggests she has a very promising future in the game. A 19 year old first-year university student, Nicklin was the leading wicket-taker in this season’s national Under-19 Championships, and her form in Premier Cricket has been consistently impressive. Bowling tidy off-breaks with an economical action, Nicklin bowled immaculately against Gordon, taking 5-25 (she actually wrapped up the Gordon innings by taking five for five in her last three overs). Against Campbelltown-Camden, she set up University’s win with a lively innings of 104, her first century of the season. Her batting, like her bowling, is neat, correct and well-organised, and she has some fluent off-side strokes. Nicklin, who has already played once for the NSW Breakers in the WNCL, has been identified as a likely prospect for some time, but her performances this season indicate that she’s ready to step up into representative cricket on a more regular basis.
Next week, the scorer’s opening the bowling
Weird game of the week was at Mike Pawley Oval, where Manly’s table-topping Fifth Grade side took on Parramatta. Manly found itself struggling for numbers, and so pressed into action its Third Grade manager, Will Gustafson, and its Fourth Grade manager, Noah Vumbaca, neither of who had played for the club this season, or indeed, expected to play. That didn’t seem very significant when Parramatta subsided to 9 for 132, but Harry Willoughby and Avyukt Iyer then made the game a little interesting by adding another 70 runs for the last wicket. Parramatta captain Liam Gillies then grabbed five wickets to leave Manly struggling at 9 for 175, still needing 28 and with only the two late recruits to bat. To begin with, they poked and prodded, picking up the occasional single, but Gustafson and Vumbaca inched closer to the target, and Vumbaca settled the issue by hitting two fours in the 80th over. So across the two innings, the last wicket added 98 runs for the loss of one wicket, while 18 other wickets fell for 307 runs. None of which makes a good deal of sense.