Week 13 Wrap vs Sutherland and St George-Sutherland

1st Grade Round 13: UTS North Sydney v Sutherland at Glenn McGrath Oval

UTS North Sydney 5/243 (cc) (J Avendano 127, TA Jagot 69) drew Sutherland 7/264 (dec) (O Knight 2/29 R Aitken 2/46 J Campbell 2/60)

After a very frustrating Saturday with stop-start rain and on-off covers, our return to two-day cricket turned into… a game in one day on Sunday, albeit with a red ball and a minimum 120 overs and without limited overs or fielding restrictions – two things we’d come to miss towards the end of the day.

Hopeful of a 12.15 start on Saturday, the toss had been done and won by the Bears, who gleefully invited the Sharks to bat under very cloudy skies with a wet outfield. When subsequent rain meant the day was abandoned, the rule book was consulted, with the conclusion that there would be a new toss on Day 2. Under sunny skies this time but with a bit of dampness still in the outfield, Tom Jagot won the second toss and had no hesitation in electing to bowl – again!

James Campbell and Matt Alexander, delighted to have the red rego back in hand, kept it tight early doors, giving away just 19 runs and no boundaries before Campbell got the breakthrough, trapping the Sharks’ skipper, Chris Williams, lbw. But you won’t see it on the highlights reel because crossed wires somewhere in Frogbox HQ or their cloud system meant that, for the first hour of the game, the live stream feed showed our scores but video from St George vs Campbelltown up the road at Hurstville. This caused much confusion for the Bears’ supporters and many texts flew around in an attempt to get the issue resolved.

It was long after the correct visuals were restored on the stream when the second wicket fell, after James Arnold and Tom Doyle put on 78. Tom Jagot tried a number of bowling combinations before bringing Campbell back before lunch, and being rewarded as an inswinger bowled Arnold who wasn’t offering a shot. Lunch was taken shortly afterwards at 2/101 off 35 of the allotted 120 overs.

After lunch, Jagot rotated his seamers from the southern end while Jack James (0/34) and Mac Jenkins (0/27) kept it tight from the northern end without any reward. The quicks enacted a mini-collapse with Biviano trapped lbw by Matt Alexander (1/39) with the score on 150, and Olly Knight (2/29) taking two in quick succession, including bowling the top-scorer, Doyle, for 80 with the first ball of his second spell. At 5/163 in the 51st, the Bears had a sniff of bowling the Sharks out with time to chase it down.

Unfortunately, what followed was a 52-run partnership for the sixth wicket, not helped by a dropped catch in the deep with the score on 164. It took until the 66th over for Rob Aitken (2/46) to break through, with a skied catch to Mac Jenkins with the score on 215, and then the new man caught behind by Aiden Bariol two balls later. With the question of declaration on everyone’s minds, Andrew Ritchie joined the set batter, Tom Pinson, and the pair smashed 48 runs off 38 balls to take the Sharks to 7/264 off 72 when tea was called after Rob Aitken split his finger open fielding off his own bowling. The declaration came at the interval, leaving the Bears 48 overs to score 265 to secure six points.

In our reply, Jack James was dismissed cheaply, bringing Justin Avendano to the crease to join Brent Atherton. He opened his account with a straight drive for four off his fifth ball, and it was evident he was “on” and up for the challenge. Atherton fell for 9 in the eighth over, caught behind driving, and Avendano was joined by Tom Jagot. Jagot’s arrival seemed to catalyse Avendano, who moved from 22 to 47 with nine scoring shots in the space of six overs, giving his skipper time to play himself in. The score was 2/61 off 14, and a solid foundation had been set for the chase.

A double bowling change followed with the opening pair replaced by another seamer and the off-spinner, Jassal. Avendano brought up his 50 off 46 balls, and Jagot hit Jassal for the first six of the innings four overs later, taking the score to 82 off 20. The equation was 163 needed off 28 overs. The introduction of leggie, Ronak Bedi on debut for the Sharks, to partner Jassal began a crucial passage of play leading into the final drinks break where the Bears just couldn’t quite get the accurate spin pair away to the boundary and the run rate required started to climb. Drinks were taken after 33 overs with 99 runs needed off the last 15 at just over 6.5 an over. It sounded doable, but we’re all used to limited-overs cricket – in this game, Sutherland could put the fielders where they liked, and were right on the defence to prevent a loss having realised their chance of winning had ebbed away.

After drinks, both Bears batters upped the ante, buoyed by the return of a quick from the southern end and managing to eliminate most dot balls and rotate the strike even when the field placing made it hard to hit the fence. Avendano brought up his fourth century of an outstanding summer off his 113th ball, while Jagot moved to 50 shortly afterwards. After reaching his milestone, Avendano set his sights on the target, hitting Ritchie for two big sixes over cow corner in crucial ten-run overs. But Jassal was still going at the other end, keeping his own economy rate to just over four and giving away only one four and one six in fourteen overs.

With 64 needed off the last six overs and most of the field back, it was going to take something very special to bring home the chocolates, but with Avendano at the crease and in the mood, anything felt possible. Unfortunately, he was bowled for a magnificent 127 off 135, trying to take another six off Ritchie, ending a partnership of 176, and Jagot fell the following over for 69. Olly Knight (21 off 14) and Aiden Bariol (12 off 12) didn’t die wondering, but it was a bridge too far and we ended 5/243 off our 48 overs, 21 short of the target.

It was a frustrating end to a long day, with some superb performances and a lot of fight shown – but ultimately, not being able to bowl the Sharks out was costly and just a few more overs for the chase would have made it much more comfortable. These one-day two-dayers are rarely satisfying and we’re all hoping for better weather for Round 16 against Hawkesbury on 5-6 March. The rain was worse in the Sutherland Shire than elsewhere in Sydney, meaning many other teams managed to get results and there were even a couple of outrights. But Sydney’s loss to NDs and our one point means we remain in eighth place and closed the gap to the top six to six points. If we can get back into the winners’ circle next week against Fairfield-Liverpool and hope Wests and Sydney trip up, there’s still a chance of finals cricket.

2nd Grade Round 13: UTS North Sydney v Sutherland at Bon Andrews Oval

UTS North Sydney 218 (48.4 overs) (J Greenslade 64, B Kumar 49) drew Sutherland

At the start of the day’s play, UTS North Sydney was sent in to bat first on a typical Bon Andrews wicket (green but relatively flat). The opening batsmen, Finn Nixon-Tomko (17) and Adam Cavenor (24), got the team off to a positive start with 45 runs in the first 8 overs before a mini collapse with the fall of three quick wickets put a halt to the Bears momentum.

The next 15 overs the run rate was substantially slower as the Bears tried to regroup from the initial loss of wickets, but each time a partnership started to form a wicket would fall. At the end of 25th over the Bears were 5/91. However, a strong partnership formed from none other than Jimmy Greenslade (64) and Baran Kumar (49), both continuing their good form from the previous week and getting the team back into the game at 5/165 by the end of the 38th over. The tail wagged in the final 10 overs, helping to push the score up to a very defendable total of 218.

At this point in time the rain had started to come in and juice up the wicket favouring the Bears’ opening pace bowlers. However, it was not to be as the rain persisted throughout the day, preventing an opportunity to defend our total and forcing a draw for the Second Grade side.

Women's 2nd Grade Round 11: Gordon / UTS North Sydney v St George-Sutherland at Harold Fraser Reserve

No play due to rain

3rd Grade Round 13: UTS North Sydney v Sutherland at Sutherland Oval

No play due to rain

Women's 3rd Grade Round 11: UTS North Sydney v St George-Sutherland at Tunks International Sports Park 2

UTS North Sydney 65 (28 overs) (E McKay 31) def by St George-Sutherland 0/76 (11. 1 overs)

A great start ...

Once again the opposition's plan was to use the bonus point rule keep playing to rack up extra points after they claimed victory. But we had two secret weapons: 1. an agreement up front that we were playing for each other with full enjoyment regardless of the scoreboard, and 2. the weather...

After a lost toss, in went Evy and Tilly as our brave openers - from the sideline it looked fantastic, with Evy hammering 7 runs off the first over. Tilly had an absolute pearler, a fast yorker cleaning out her stumps, so in went Cabby with full enthusiasm at number 3. She's been working hard on her batting, and it showed! Two beautiful legside pull shots almost reached the boundary ... but Evy said no to running both of them. Very strange. So Cabby decided to just hit the ball harder, resulting in two fours to her name as she and Evy pushed the score to 1/24 - a great start. When Cabby was out to a good catch for 9, we ran on to ask if there was a problem - Evy had strained a quad muscle in the first over! Not good news.

But Evy fought on valiantly for as long as she could, eventually retiring hurt on 31. Amy and Hetti gave us hope, both hitting powerful boundaries before Amy caught a bottom edge and Hetti picked out the lone fielder at mid-wicket, out for 4 and 7 respectively. Sarah and Anjali hung in for a long time before the bowlers sent them back without scoring. Manvek, in just her third game, managed to make a couple of runs off a patient 18 balls. Abby, Chloe and Jillian had to put up with some very good line and length bowling from their spinning duo and couldn't score, nor could Evy when she returned to bat on. Extras didn't help either, with 13 overs from their two spinners bowled without a single no ball nor wide.

So from a great start at 3/57 we collapsed to 65 all out, well below our potential.

St George-Sutherland made quick work of passing our score and carried on batting. We had queried them on this and they made it clear that they weren't very interested in our thoughts on the matter, they were playing all out for bonus points. Them's the rules.

So we used weapon 2 - the rain came down heavily and filled up the little swimming pool that was our centre wicket. As agreed up front, we made the most of it, with Bella, Abby, Anjali and Amy all dancing in the rain. Joy.

4th Grade Round 13: UTS North Sydney v Sutherland at Tunks International Sports Park

UTS North Sydney 0/52 (16.5 overs) (D Singh 24* A Nigul 22*) def (D/L) Sutherland 117 (42.4 overs) (B Revai 3/19, N Whyte 3/30, J Thomas 2/20, A Thomas 2/24)

After a couple of tough weeks, the Fourth Grade squad were keen to return to the form that saw them win four games in a row over the Christmas period. This would be a challenge as they were up against a Sutherland team cemented in the top five.

After taking off the covers and having a look at a surprisingly green Tunks wicket, it was clear that a decision to bowl first would be best. Stepping in for the first time as captain this season, Jack Thomas, did exactly that.

Thomas and Nuwan Whyte took the new ball, and were unplayable early, with the Sharks batsmen playing and missing consistently. Thomas would be the first to strike in the 7th over, with Pat Heuzenroeder taking a simple catch behind the stumps. Some aggressive batting from the Sutherland no.3 threatened to increase the run rate, but Whyte had other ideas, taking three wickets in his final three overs before drinks. With the score at 4/39, the Bears had won the first session, but the there was plenty more to do. Ben Revai showed the way forward, cartwheeling the middle stump of an unsuspecting Sharks middle order batsman. Aidan Thomas decided he would not be outdone at the other end, bowling some smart lines to take a double wicket maiden in his first over. Revai then found the edge of another batsman, the skipper happily accepting the catch at first slip. After 21 overs, the Bears were now in complete control with the score at 8/50. Sutherland dug in, but 5 overs later Revai found the stumps again to take the score to 9/68.

Perhaps a little over-confident, the Bears then took the foot off the pedal, as a couple of dropped catches let the final wicket linger. Johnson, Vohra and Hay all attempted to end the innings without luck, as Whyte and Revai were brought back to round out their spells. Some sharp fielding from Thorat, who had been driving the fielding display of the whole team, was unable to be capitalised on, as the Sutherland batting pair continued to add to the score. Jack Thomas eventually brought himself back on and took the final wicket with the score at 117. Whilst the Bears definitely let Sutherland get away, the session was controlled by the quicks, with Revai (10 overs 3/19) and Whyte (10 overs 3/30) the stars of the show.

Over the lunch break, the rain came down and the covers went back down, meaning the restart was delayed slightly. As the sun attempted to poke through, Adi Nigul and Dilraj Singh walked out to the middle. The pair took a positive approach to the game and ran hard knowing that the outfield had been slowed by the rain. After seeing out the first 10 overs, Nigul and Singh began accelerating, and capitalised on some short-pitched Sharks bowling. Mid-way through the 13th over, the rain came down again and early drinks was called with the score at 0/42. The rain was short lived, and some tremendous efforts on the covers from Bernie and the lower order Bears got the game going again, but it was short lived. Nigul (22) and Singh (24) negotiated to midway through the 17th over when the rain again came, this time with the score at 0/52.

After putting the covers back on (again), the rain continued for another hour. Deep into the afternoon, the covers finally came back off and preparations were made to get started as soon as possible. Like clockwork, the rain was down again, and finally the match was called. The Bears had won using the Duckworth Lewis method, as the par score was 23. In a week where not many other games got on, this takes Fourth Grade to 11th on the ladder, just 3 points away from a finals spot. With an impressive quotient percentage and a seemingly gentle run home, finals should be achievable if similar cricket is played.

5th Grade Round 13: UTS North Sydney v Sutherland at Tonkin Park

UTS North Sydney drew Sutherland 2/42 (15 overs) (J Edwards 2/14)

After a heavy night of rain, the Bears rolled up to Tonkin Park in the Shire expecting a wet day. To their surprise, the outfield was bone dry, and the deck ready for play.

Tossing on time, Perry won the toss and stuck with the formula of the season, bowling first. After 2.2 overs, the sides were off as rain began to roll in. The sides got the covers down, preserving the wicket and square, allowing play to get back underway within the hour, with no loss of overs.

Youngster James Edwards came out firing after the delay, removing both openers, one caught behind by Harry Davis, and the other plumb leg before. Alex MacGill bowled tightly without luck from the other end, the pair bowling well together with the new ball. Perry squeezed in a couple of overs to get to the 15 over mark before the rain returned and set in...

All players scurried to get the covers on and again preserve the pitch. The rain was on and off for the rest of the afternoon and so were the covers. There was a 19-over-a-side game targeted with a 4:30pm start, where the Sharks were to face 4 more overs; however, when the covers were peeled back for the final time, water had got under the covers, creating large mud patches on the square, and spots of water on a length that were not going to dry. This rendered the square unplayable, despite the pristine condition of the outfield.

As a result, the game was abandoned, with one point apiece for the Bears and Sharks. A tough day at the office, considering other games resulted around the competition.

Sitting in fourth place now, the Bears head out to Don Dawson next week to take on the Fairfield Liverpool Lions, looking to get back to winning ways.

U18 Brewer Shield Round 11: UTS North Sydney v St George-Sutherland at Bon Andrews Oval

UTS North Sydney 140 (40.6 overs) (MR Singh 38, E Buckley 24) def by St George-Sutherland 185 (47.1 overs) (SY Julien 2/21, MR Singh 2/28, A Uthappa 2/32)

After two and half days of solid rain we headed off to Bon Andrews not knowing what to expect. Much to our surprise, the wicket was in good shape with only a couple of wet patches, the sun was shining and showing its best impersonation of Summer. A quick conversation with the ground staff confirmed they had been unable to roll the pitch, making it a definite bowl first morning, and their great work saw us ready to commence play on time. Liz Buckley's debut game as captain saw her off to an excellent start, winning the toss and electing to have a bowl, hoping to take advantage of whatever the wicket had to offer.

Both openers bowled a good first over and it was 0/3 off 2 overs, however with the ball holding up in the pitch the Slayers opening bat then turned the game on its head with all out attack, firmly putting the pressure straight back on to the Bears bowling unit and taking 23 runs off the next two overs. A now rapidly panicking fill-in coach implemented a quick fielding change, with a message to switch to spin. The bowlers then delivered in spades, Shiloh Julien (2/21 off 9) and Mayher Singh (2/28 off 8.1) slowing down the run rate, which produced the crucial wicket of the Slayers’ uber aggressive opener (28 off 28 balls). Following their spell, the opposition were able to rebuild nicely putting on another 37 runs before Georgia MacDonald (1/10 off 3) and Leyla Ozen (1/10 off 3) took key wickets removing well set top order batters to have St George-Sutherland 4/106 off 24.1.

Chloe Day (1/11 off 2) was the best of the fast bowlers, who all struggled with line in blustery conditions and batters attacking them on the pitch that seemed to offer little assistance. Realising that on a Bon Andrews wicket that had received a lot of moisture that slower bowling was most effective, Liz stuck with this tactic. Emily Aitken (1/16 off 5) again bowled great line and length, making it difficult for the batsman to score. Ani Uthappa (2/32 of 9) relished the opportunity to bowl on a turning wicket, her tight bowling, rewarding her captain's faith by taking 2 wickets in 2 balls and it was 7/139 off 37. Mayher and Shiloh were then brought back into the attack and able to finish off the innings with another excellent spell of bowling, Slayers being all out for 185.

With a chasable target on offer the girls were quietly confident they could get the runs, but this confidence was shaken early with both the openers struggling to score. It was only the regular wides that were keeping us in the match - 1/9 off 6. The early wicket brought Mayher Singh (38) to the crease, who was brimming with confidence following success with the ball. Her positive batting also helped Sam Kuncham (19) get going after an unusually slow start, with the pair putting together a solid 58 run partnership to move the score to 2/64.

Liz Buckley (24) picked up where Sam left off and for a couple of overs both she and Mayher seemed to be in cruise control. Runs were flowing nicely until a series of dot balls and lack of patience drew a rash shot ending Mayher’s innings - 3/79 off 19. Despite a couple of quick wickets, Liz was able to keep the run rate on target until a lack of concentration saw her dropped at point then bowled a few balls later, playing across the line to a ball that never got above knee height - 6/107 off 28. The remaining batters fought bravely but with runs mainly coming from the extras it was a bridge too far, the exception being Georgia MacDonald (13*) who did not stop trying to push for runs, playing her best innings in Brewers colours. The team scored 140, falling 45 runs short of the target.

Despite the disappointment of losing the match, the girls gave the second-placed team a real scare and showed what they are capable of. The potential win came down to just one of the top order being able to turn a start into a big score. Whilst we have had a young side previously, with the creation of a Second Grade side this year we lost a lot of experience from the Brewers team, leaving us with the majority of girls in this team only 13 and14 years of age. If we can keep this group together we should have a legitimate chance at finals next season.

Media courtesy of Tony Johnson, David James, Sarah Berman, Adam Cavenor, Malcolm Trees, Evy McKay, Gordon Women's Cricket Club and team captains.