Justin Avendano Brings Up 5,000 First Grade Runs
During his innings of 29 in the Round 3 win over Blacktown, Justin Avendano became the 12th player to record 5,000 First Grade runs for the Bears. His remarkable start to the 2021/22 season, 294 runs in four innings, has seen him leapfrog three players in the all-time list in the last three weeks.
Justin has scored 5,026 runs for the Bears at the top grade at an average of 38.08 since joining from Gordon in 2012/13, and he has a mammoth 7,812 runs in his overall NSW Premier Cricket career.
A destructive batsman, Justin has a habit of “going large” once he gets in. He’s scored 10 First Grade hundreds, with four scores in excess of 160. Most recently, he scored 171 off 122 balls in this season’s Round 2, in an extraordinary display of power hitting that included 11 fours, 11 sixes and countless lost balls.
His 176 against Manly-Warringah in in 2016/17 was part of a club-record 303-run third wicket partnership with Anjan Oberai, and formed the backbone of a record-shattering chase of 444. His top score of 190 also came in a mammoth run chase as his side fell just short of Penrith’s total of 362. Against the same opposition in the 2018/19 rain-affected semi-final, Justin smashed an undefeated 143 to give his side a chance in a shortened game.
At the time of writing, Justin needs another 489 runs to get into our top 10 all-time run-scorers, and given his current blistering form, there’s every chance of him reaching that milestone this season.