We’ve been playing for five minutes, and we have our first finalists
Cricket seasons follow a different rhythm these days. For more than a century, cricket began in Sydney on the last Saturday in September, at which point the teams would find themselves poised halfway through their opening two-day game. But now, after the last weekend in September, we already know the first batch of clubs who’ll be playing finals cricket this season.
When the final preliminary round began in the Kingsgrove Sports T20 competition on Sunday, there were already four certain finalists: Randwick-Petersham in Pool A, Sydney University in Pool B, Western Suburbs in Pool C and Bankstown in Pool D. The other places looked like this. In Pool A, Fairfield had the protection of a ridiculously high net run rate, which would have kept them above St George even if they lost to Hawkesbury. As it was, they tied, at which point we learned that the preliminary rounds of this competition turn out to be just about the only T20 tournament in the world not to use a super over. In Pool B, Northern District advanced by beating Campbelltown. In Pool C, there was a straight shoot-out between Easts and Parramatta for second place, which Parramatta won through a Nick Bertus masterclass and a late onslaught from Owen Simonsen. Pool D was tight. Three teams finished on two wins each, but Manly won through on net run rate, which was high mostly because Charlie Stobo thrashed 82 from 29 balls against North Sydney on Saturday. How will any of this work out? Don’t ask us: predictions are for mugs.
You know, we used to have to wait until March for this kind of fun.
The Students are finding ways to win
Sydney University is back in the Kingsgrove T20 finals after winning all of its four preliminary matches. They followed more or less the same formula in every game: bat first, post a total, defend. That defence relies strongly on Kieran Tate’s white-ball skills, as well as canny left-arm spin from Cameron Frendo and Bailey Lidgard, and the handy addition of Henry Snyman’s deceptively nude-looking off-spin. They’re also showing signs of winning matches they probably shouldn’t. On Sunday, Will Salzmann miscued a pull shot to mid-on from the first ball of the match against Penrith. After 13 balls had been bowled, University had lost three for 14. Tim Cummins and Damien Mortimer put together the best partnership of the innings, but it still took a last wicket stand of 22 to haul the Students up to 154, which seemed well under par. Nick Adams made a statement of intent by driving the first ball of Penrith’s innings down the ground for 4, but another drive three balls later deflected from Kieran Tate’s hand and into the stumps, catching Ryan Gibson (who hadn’t faced a ball) out of his ground. That didn’t seem to matter when Adams and Jordan Watson peeled 54 runs from the next five overs. Watson played an excellent innings, and after 12 overs, Penrith needed 55 runs from 48 balls with eight wickets in hand. Traditional wisdom says: Penrith can’t lose from there, and University could win only by taking wickets. But even though wickets didn’t fall, University persisted. Lidgard bowled Charlie Griffith in an over that allowed only four singles. Snyman sent down an over that yielded only a four and a single. Yuvraj Sharma came on to bowl leg-breaks and induced Adam Bayliss to hole out to long-on. Only eight runs came from overs 17 and 18, bowled by Sharma and Frendo. Suddenly, Penrith needed 24 runs from the last two overs. Watson and Liam Doddrell each whacked a 6 in the 19th over, which left Penrith needing 11 to win from the last set of six. Tate produced a nerveless final over, and when Watson was run out attempting a second run, Chris De Krester needed to hit the last ball of the innings over the fence to win the game. His hefty swing produced only a single, giving University the win by only four runs – even though the Students didn’t even bat out their 20 overs, and Penrith lost only four wickets.
We’re screwed, but the cricket goes on
Anyway, last week, the atmospheric temperature above the South Pole jumped by 30 degrees. If that sounds uninteresting, pause for a moment and consider how great the difference is between freezing point and 30 degrees. This is a phenomenon known as Sudden Stratospheric Warming, and it’s why temperatures in Sydney were so high last week. It’s why, in the last week of September, cricket matches started in western Sydney early in the morning with temperatures already climbing towards the high twenties. SSW tends to produce hot westerly winds, which bring hot and dry weather. It’s sometimes associated, over a longer period, with drought.
If you’re aged, say, twenty-five or less, this is pretty bad news. You’re inheriting a warming planet, governed by people without the will to do much about it (that distant, flatulent sound you hear is President Trump denouncing all this as fake news). Silver lining, though! – fewer washouts in the cricket this season. You’re welcome.
He’s an answer to a good trivia question, but also more
Today’s fun fact: since the first one-day international was played in Melbourne in 1970-71, 249 players have appeared in ODIs for Australia. Of those, only twenty players have been given just one cap. Eleven of them played in or before 1980, when ODIs were fairly rare: players like Bill Lawry appeared in Australia’s first ODI but retired before another was staged. And Riley Meredith and Ben Dwarshuis might yet be given another opportunity. Between 2009 and 2021, only one player was chosen for Australia in ODI cricket and dropped after just one opportunity.
That player, of course, was Queensland’s left-hander Sam Heazlett (against New Zealand at Auckland in 2017), and if you’d been at Hurstville Oval on Saturday, you’d have a fair idea of why he was chosen in the first place. Opening for St George against Sydney in the morning, he smashed 91 from 50 balls. He actually sort-of-defended his first two balls, before flicking the third behind square leg to the boundary. But 18 runs came from the second over, bowled by leg spinner Aryan Malik, including three 4s and a back foot slash-drive-cut in front of point that cleared the boundary. Heazlett and Blake Nikitaras peeled 142 runs from the first 11.5 overs, effectively ending the contest, and Heazlett was out to the last ball of the 18th over, when he miscued a drive to long off. In the afternoon, against Hawkesbury, he was even faster, blazing 45 from 19 balls. St George – with Nikitaras, Heazlett and Moises Henriques, looks formidable with the bat, but oddly a poor opening day cost it a place in the T20 finals. There are plenty of bowlers who will not be unhappy with that outcome.
Someone needs to buy his captain the occasional beer
On the subject of St George, spare a thought for Alex Parthenis. On Sunday, the part-time tweaker took 3 for 10 in the Poidevin-Gray match against Sutherland. As a result, his bowling average went up, because in the previous PGs match, he had taken five for nine against Hawkesbury. So in the season so far, he has eight wickets at an average of 2.38. Does that get him a bowl in Second Grade? It does not. On Saturday, University of NSW ran up 4 for 165 from its 20 overs while Parthenis’ spinning finger sat buy, twitching idly. Which, in one way, is to be expected, since in his whole season in Second Grade last year, Parthenis was allowed just one over (even though, in his one spell in PGs, he took four for 28). It will be interesting to see what he needs to do to get a bowl in Seconds: the traditional method involves buying several post-match beers for the captain.