Week 4 Wrap vs Manly, Sutherland and Bankstown

1st Grade Round 4: UTS North Sydney v Manly at Manly Oval

UTS North Sydney 6/83 (17 overs) (cc) (O Knight 41*) def by Manly 4/229 (31 overs) (cc) (JN James 1/21, O Knight 1/29)

After the week’s rain, we arrived at Manly Oval pessimistic about the prospects of play, but the rain abated around lunchtime and the Manly boys did some sterling work mopping the outfield, so we tossed at 2pm for a 2pm start, 31 overs per side. Tom Jagot called correctly and had no hesitation in inviting our Waratah rivals to bat in bowler-friendly conditions.

Things got even better for the Bears when Jack Edwards nicked the first ball of James Campbell’s second over to slip, where Jagot took a comfortable catch. Manly were 1/6 and their skipper, Jay Lenton, strode to the crease. He very nearly needed to head back to the sheds the following over when on 1, but the catch at square leg went down. Spoiler alert – it wasn’t the last drop of the day, and we were made to pay!

The openers bowled tightly, and the second breakthrough came in the 10th over when Jack James (1/21) was introduced. Ben Bryant, Jack’s former opening batting partner at the Bears, got the faintest of edges on the way through to Aiden Bariol and Manly were 2/40. Lenton and Ryan Farrell put on 43, but Olly Knight (1/29) kept the run rate under control before Rob Aitken (1/57) had Farrell caught on the fence by Jack James while going for a big shot. Joel Davies hit Olly for two successive fours, but our in-form all-rounder had the last laugh, Davies falling into the trap and pulling a short one to deep mid-wicket where Tim Reynolds took an excellent catch. It was 4/102 in the 21st, the run rate was just 5 an over and the Bears were up and about despite a couple more difficult missed chances.

Davies’ dismissal brought together Lenton and English import Tom Lammonby. The pair proceeded to dismantle the Bears’ attack and provide a masterclass in running between the wickets, putting on 127 off 63 balls to take the score to a commanding 4/229 off 31 overs. Lenton hit all of his seven sixes in the final ten overs, and was particularly brutal in the final one, taking 26 runs off it with four bombs to finish 120* – and rather ruining Campbell’s figures (1/51) in the process.

After the onslaught, the Bears were on the back foot, and it went from bad to worse with Tom Jagot nicking behind in the second over. Brent Atherton quickly followed his skipper back to the sheds courtesy of an absolute screamer at backward point. Jack James and Aiden Bariol put on 20, including a six over mid-wicket by Bariol to get off the mark, but he mis-judged a clip off his legs and sent it straight down the throat of deep wide fine leg. Reynolds and James (11) fell in quick succession and the Bears were in dire straits at 5/35 in the 12th.

With very little to lose, Olly Knight let loose, peppering the leg side boundary with three sixes and four fours on his way to 41* off 24. He found good company in James Aitken, who hit a bomb of his own and was well set on 14 when the heavens opened. The shower was short-lived but dark clouds had gathered, so that was all she wrote. The Bears closed on 6/83 off 17 – five runs ahead of where Manly had been at the same stage, but well behind in the wickets column and 68 adrift on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern par score.

It was a disappointing showing after a promising start with the ball, and we’ll need to dust ourselves off before a tough weekend of St George on Saturday and Manly again in the Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup on Sunday, but we’re all looking forward to be back at the Home of Cricket, North Sydney Oval.

2nd Grade Round 4: UTS North Sydney v Manly-Warringah at Bon Andrews Oval

No play due to rain

Women's 2nd Grade Round 3: Gordon / UTS North Sydney v Manly-Warringah at Graham Reserve

Gordon / UTS North Sydney 4/70 (15.2 overs) def Manly 69 (18.1 overs) (G Keating 2/7, S Chun 2/9, E Ridley 2/13, O Callaghan 1/12, I Keating 1/13)

Luckily the weather held off and GNS v Manly was able to go ahead as planned at the picturesque Graham Reserve. Manly won the toss and (bravely) decided to bat on a wicket which was just holding a little. This enabled the GNS bowlers to take advantage of the conditions with some very accurate bowling, with Sarah Chun (2/9), Emma Ridley (2/13) and Grace Keating (2/7) leading the way. India Keating (first game after finishing the HSC) and Adelaide Hicks also caused the batters some consternation, when they were able to hit the right length.

Manly, struggling at 3/21 threatened to recover with fourth wicket partnership of 29 before a run out brought on a collapse, to be all out for 69. This was one of 2 run outs, which was indicative of a sharp performance in the field from all the girls. Bianca Lozell closed out the innings with a sharp stumping off Liv Callaghan.

With the pitch still offering something for the bowlers, GNS approach the relatively small target of 70 with necessary caution. Although losing wickets at regular intervals, the batters were always on top of the run chase reaching 4/70 in the 16th over.

Well done to the girls for achieving their first victory as the new GNS joint venture. Go the REINBEARS!

3rd Grade Round 4: UTS North Sydney v Manly-Warringah at Graham Reserve

UTS North Sydney 50 (26.5 Overs) def by Manly 9/172 (cc) (H May 3/24, B Kumar 2/33)

On a wet and gloomy day, 3s travelled to Graham Reserve to face Manly-Warringah. After a few hours of standing around in the rain, it finally held up and the ground began to dry - with help from a few super soppers - and a toss was scheduled for 11:50. Winning the toss in the 43 over game, the Bears bowled first and were off to a great start with wickets to Fraser Noack (who let the Manly skipper know just how good the ball was on his way out) and Harrison May in the first 9 overs. Harrison continued on from his fine start, adding another two scalps in his spell and ending up 3/24 off 9. Fraser, Chris Savage and Everett Oxenham all bowled well and finished with a wicket to their name each, while Baran Kumar (2/33) was tough for the Manly batsmen to get away.

After being set 173 for a win, the Bears felt this was a great opportunity for 6 points. Unfortunately, it was not to be as we saw both openers fall early, followed by the middle order crumbling and leaving the score at 5 for 18. Fraser and Baran put together some resistance to the Manly bowlers, but it was short-lived as the Bears limped to 50 runs before being dismissed all out.

While the job was done well early in the day by the bowlers, unfortunately we did not execute with the bat and missed out on a good opportunity to obtain extra points on a weekend which saw very few games get on the park.

Women's 3rd Grade Round 3: UTS North Sydney v Bankstown at Tunks International Sports Park 2

No play due to rain

4th Grade Round 4: UTS North Sydney v Manly-Warringah at Tunks International Sports Park

No play due to rain

5th Grade Round 4: UTS North Sydney v Manly-Warringah at Mike Pawley Oval

No play due to rain

Round 3 Kingsgrove Sports T20 Cup: UTS North Sydney v Sutherland at Glenn McGrath Oval

UTS North Sydney 4/164 (cc) (TA Jagot 63 A Bariol 50 BS Atherton 32) def by Sutherland 8/123(cc)(S Alexander 3/21 J Campbell 2/13 R Aitken 2/21)

Spoiler alert!!! UTS North Sydney recorded an emphatic victory against Sutherland to claim their first win of the T20 season.

Fronting up without specialist T20 batsman Justin Avendano and with the inclusion of Kobe Allison on debut, the Bears made short work of their opposition with both bat and ball.

Tom Jagot was due after a couple of leaner scores, and he was joined by Brent Atherton who was also keen to rack up some runs after missing out in the Manly game. The start could not have been any better. Both batsmen crunched the white ball to all parts - a straight four to Jagot and then a delicate caress off the hip to fine leg for another. BA hit one uppishly through gully for four and then got down on one knee for the slog sweep at least twice, two of them going the journey. There were several vicious cuts through point and cover point - a Jagot trademark. When they could not find the boundary, the openers were able to pick up singles in the sparse ground. By the end of the 6-over powerplay the Bears had 58 runs on the board. In over 8, after dispatching the bowler over the fence off the first ball, Brent (32 off 23) was adjudged lbw on the third ball and had to go with the score 1/72.

Aiden Bariol took over from where Brent left off and assisted his captain in pushing the score past 100 by the start of the 12th over. Jagot brought up his fifty with a boundary in the 14th over. Baz went a bit funky today and was successful with a ramp and a reverse sweep that both went to the fence. In all, he hit 8 boundaries on his way to bringing up a 32-ball fifty in the 17th over. The pair doubled the score with Bariol falling in the 18th with the Bears 2/148. Jagot was out next over for a well-made 63 from 51 balls at 3/155, leaving 9 balls. 5 dots including the wicket of Olly Knight left debutant Kobe Allison and Tim Reynolds to finish the job. Kobe scored 7 off 5 and Tim 6 off 4 to post a vert competitive 4/164 from the allotted 20 overs.

James Campbell got the ball rolling with a wicket in the first over with a neat catch low down to Aiden Bariol behind the stumps leaving Sutherland 1/1. Jack James bowled several dots and was unlucky not to snare another wicket for the team, but it was the Jimmy show from the other end. Jimmy grabbed his second with the ball ballooning up to Sam Alexander at cover to have Sutherland 2/16 after 3. Almost everything is turning to gold for Olly Knight at present so it was not unexpected that he would snare a wicket with his first ball with another mishit lobing straight to Sam Alexander at mid-on to leave Sutherland 3/25 at the start of the 6th over and in some trouble. Campbell bowled his four overs straight to finish with 2/13.

Sutherland fought back to reach 68 runs after 12, leaving under 100 from the final eight overs. Spinners Robbie Aitken and Sam Alexander removed the two set batsman, Robbie taking the fourth wicket with the ball swept hard to the boundary but straight into the hands of Tim Reynolds, who took it comfortably. The next wicket was something special. Sam Alexander delivered, and Jack James moved quickly from a wide mid-on position and got airborne to pluck the ball out of the sky, cutting off a certain boundary over the bowler’s head and taking what some have described as the catch of the season so far.

Robbie and Sam then ripped through the middle order as their batsmen tried to pick up the pace, to claim the next three wickets. Sam destroyed the stumps of the noted bowler Tom Pinson as he swiped across his stumps, while Baz was involved in two of the dismissals, a neat stumping off Robbie and a sharp catch off Sam. At 8/93 at the start of the 18th it was game over, and despite a flurry of runs from the final over which made the game appear closer than it was, it was a clinical display by the Bears.

Interestingly, the win moves the team inside the top 4 in the Sixers Conference on net run rate. Our final two games will be played at North Sydney Oval and the boys will be desperate to make amends against a strong Manly side in the first of these matches. Manly sit in fifth on the same points making it a sudden death type of clash with Easts and UNSW also on the same points lurking just behind.

Poidevin Grey Shield (T20) Round 3: UTS North Sydney v v Sutherland at Glenn McGrath Oval

UTS North Sydney 117 (19.5 overs) (N Hay 31 HP Lee Young 29) def by Manly 3/141 (cc) (B Knox 1/13, N Hay 1/31)

The PGs side took a trip down to Glenn McGrath Oval on Sunday to face Sutherland in the third T20 fixture of their season. Unlike the few days before, the sun was out and a good morning of cricket was ahead for the Bears. Sutherland won the toss and elected to bat first on what appeared to be a very flat batting wicket. Chris Savage, Everett Oxenham and Toby Laybutt bowled tight in the crucial powerplay overs, minimising boundaries in the early stages of the game, and set the stage for Ben Knox and Nick Hay to take a wicket each through the middle overs of the innings. A failed LBW shout from Harry Lee-Young led to a very impressive run out at the bowler’s end, and the Sutherland innings at 3/141.

This brought Tim Reynolds and James Leary to the crease as the Bears went about the chase. With both openers falling early, the young and relatively inexperienced middle order were exposed and set the task of chasing down the runs. After 10 overs, the run rate required was approaching 10 runs an over, and with better than a run-a-ball scores from Harri Lee-Young (29), John Nevell (16) and Nick Hay (31), the Bears were edging closer to victory. Unfortunately, after the three fell, the final four batsmen failed to trouble the scorers and the Bears were bundled out for 117 in the final over of the match.

This was not the result the Bears were after but with Manly-Warringah at the glorious North Sydney Oval next week, we look to bounce back.

U18 Brewer Shield Round 3: UTS North Sydney v Bankstown at Bon Andrews Oval

Abandoned due to rain

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