D1 Grade Round 2 (Sat 27 Sep & 4 Oct 2008) v Berowra at Arcadia

WPHC won toss & bowled: Berowra 208, WPHC 0-22 at stumps, day 1.

Week 1 (Sat 27.9.08):

Winning our second toss of the season we sent our opponents in to bat to capitalise on our strong Week 1 bowling attack, only to be thwarted by a show of dogged resistance by the Berowra upper order who, clearly, were not reading from our script. Only a couple of fortuitous bowling changes by Roger Friend and a great bowling spell by Chris Milojevic, including the prize scalps of Greg Johnston (40) and Riley Chivers (44) finally put us back in the game. Five wickets then fell in the space of eight runs and we were anticipating an early close to the Berowra innings when veteran Ian Lewis spoilt our party with a determined rearguard stand that lifted Berowra’s score to 208 before he fell on 46 to Roger’s bowling, Chris Milojevic capping off a great day’s cricket by taking the catch.

Bowling for WPHC Roger Friend took the honours with an impressive haul of 4-25, Chris Milojevic (3-39), Chris Grima (2-33), and Shankar Ravi (1-47) being the other successful bowlers. Shankar’s one wicket was yet another stumping by our keeper, Bruce Caldwell, continuing this pair’s great record of stumpings from last season ( nine in total, so far, and counting: these two are going for a club record! ).

In the field a few dropped catches probably cost us dearly, none so unlucky than Marco Delgado who lost a great chance at a caught & bowled, performing in mid-pitch what looked rather like a desperate sword swallowing act as the ball all but fell down his throat yet somehow managed to elude his frantic fingers. Meanwhile Bruce Caldwell, top keeper in D Reserve Grade last year and a great asset to our team, celebrated his return with two catches as well as the stumping, while Chris Grima showed repeatedly what a great fielding asset he is with his powerful and unerring returns from the deep to the keeper.

As evening closed in our openers, Brendan Harkin and Ben Pilipowski batted out ten overs to be 22 without loss at stumps, thus setting us up in a good position going into the final day of this hard fought match.

Week 2 (Sat 2.10.08):

Sadly rain prevented the resumption of play today, thus leaving this match drawn and our first test against Berowra unresolved.

Endnote: Thanks to all of our Week 2 players for turning up on a rainy afternoon so keen to get on with the game, and thanks, also, to Ben Tranter for stepping in at such late notice to keep us at full strength for this match.

Posted by Peter Westerberg on October 6, 2008 09:44 PM