Our second game back after a long break (way back in Round 6 on 22/11) and the rust evident last match was starting to fall away. This time we were playing Hornsby who were coming second and just 7 points off the pace.

After losing the toss and being sent in (our preferred option anyway) we struggled to score against a good bowling attack, helped by a slow wicket, surprisingly slow outfield and a wind that helped their bowlers. That said, Kishore (31) and Ross A (12) still put on 34 for the opening partnership which turned out to be the best partnership of the match. Kishore was back to his old form and kept playing shots. The highlight was him scoring his 4,000th run for our Club that now places him in the top 10 run scorers of all time – well done mate.

Dave Luland did some good things for 15 before getting one of the balls of the match. After being 2/60 at the break we were well placed to get what we thought was par score of around 130. A regular loss of wickets and we were struggling at 8/79 before Andrew belted a quick 21 that turned out to be the difference. How about that 6 which landed a long way outside the ground.

With a low score to defend we had to do everything right and have a bit of luck – we got both. While putting down some easy catches none cost us heavily. Best of the day was John Steel’s ankle high effort in his follow through – probably a match turning point.

Everyone bowled well and kept pressure on the batsman who struggled under the same conditions as us to dominate. The finish was exciting. At one stage they were 7/91, needing just 9 runs to win with 8 overs to go. We kept building pressure and took the next 3 wickets for 4 runs to win another amazing game against Hornsby by 5 runs.

This is now the 2nd game we have won at the death – the first against Kissing point when we won by one run and now this one.

With 4 games to go until the Finals we are certain to make the Semi’s, the only issue is the position. We are currently 11 points clear of Pymble which means that this puts us effectively 3 wins in the lead. We have known games against: Pymble (2nd) and St Ives (last) to come.

Next week
We play 2nd placed Pymble at Normanhurst Oval – our last 1-dayer starting at noon.

Ross A

Posted by Ross Anderson on January 21, 2009 07:38 AM