D1 Grade, Round 1 (Sat 13 & 20 Sep 2008) v St Ives at Bannockburn

WPHC won toss & batted: WPHC 266, St Ives 8-186: match drawn.

Week 1 (Sat 13.9.08):

Winning the toss and batting on an unseasonably hot afternoon, we got off to a strong start thanks to a powerful display of batting from our upper and middle order, led by a fasting Faisal Shamsi whose superb 50, compiled under the most punishing of conditions and batting with a runner, laid the foundation for what followed. Bruce Caldwell contributed a characteristically workmanlike 27, while Chris Milojevic played by far the finest innings of his career to be undefeated on 90, with the score at 9-256 at stumps.

Week 2: (Sat 20.9.08):

Resuming our innings on an even hotter afternoon, Chris Milojevic and Peter Westerberg pushed the score on to 266 before an unlucky Milojevic fell just two runs short of his first career century. However, if this great innings of 98 is anything to go by, that elusive ton may not be long in coming.

With a substantial run deficit to make up, the St Ives batsmen never looked to be in the race to win, but, as the heat began to tell on us all, neither were our bowlers able to cut through their batting defences quickly enough to clinch victory for us, St Ives finishing on 8-186 as fading light foreclosed on the dying overs of the match.

The best of our bowlers was Shankar Ravi, who claimed 3-36, while Marco Delgado (2-26), Roger Friend (1-31), Chris Grima (1-34) and Nick Grima (1-3) all contributed to the haul. Brendan Harkin put in a good afternoon’s work behind the stumps, standing in for a sick Bruce Caldwell, while Luke Christensen was a tower of strength in the outfield, running ragged miles in the stifling heat to stop boundaries before being rewarded with a great catch in the deep.

With our numbers depleted by illness, we owe a big debt of thanks to our two subs, Simon Friend and Ben Harper for keeping us up there in the game on Week 2. Ben, a 12 year old sometime St Ives junior (!) put in a great effort in the tough conditions and is clearly a young cricketer with a bright future ahead.

Despite the draw, this was a confidence building match that showed us that we definitely have what it takes to be competitive this season. To sum up, in Roger Friend’s words:

“As a game I thought it was a good match with our team performing well with the bat and in the field. I was really happy with what I saw even those who did not trouble the scorers as much as they would like. i.e. Luke, Sam and Brendan’s batting look to have great potential. Chris Milojevic’s bowling was very good and he deserved a wicket or two, both Nick and Chris Grima were excellent and are an asset in the field as well as for bowling. Brendan is certainly a good sub wicket keeper for Bruce. Even our number 11 batsman can have a reasonable claim for promotion up the order. For the first time in many years I have a good feeling about the strength of this side and would expect us to make the semi finals from which anyone can win the title.”

Posted by Peter Westerberg on September 25, 2008 09:24 PM