As all the players, coaches and parents arrived at Harbord Park, the overcast conditions and the misty rain prompted the leadership group to elect to bat first. We began our warmup, with two laps (as usual) and then completed our stretches as we grew closer to the toss of the coin. We had a debrief before the toss and Clarke told Henry and Will C, to get their baggy blues and head out to the middle for the toss, where they were greeted by the umpire and the Penrith captain and vice-captain. The umpire debriefed on the rules and then Henry tossed the coin. Penrith called heads losing the toss, (“Tails never fails” – James Pike), and we elected to bat first, making sure that we would get the better bowling conditions.
Everyone proceeded to migrate to the tents to watch the first innings unfold. Penrith started well, bowling thirteen consecutive dot balls, before Henry opened his account with a boundary and the first runs of the innings.
From this point onwards the openers proceeded to bat aggressively throughout their partnership, Henry hitting the bowlers out of the park and Finlay playing a crucial support role. The partnership was finally broken when Finlay was dismissed on 13 (48). Two overs after the first wicket had fallen, Henry was on 97*, but not for long as Henry proceeded to hit a boundary through third man to bring up his century. Unfortunately, Henry was caught the ball after his century finishing with the score of 101 (78) 13 fours and 6 sixes. After the fall of the two openers the rest of the team proceeded to have miniature collapses here and there with promising starts to partnerships between Lucas and Will C and Nixon and Dan. The innings was wrapped up with Manly finishing with a score of 10-183, from 42.3 overs.
After debriefing our batting innings, we began our bowling warmup, with the top four bowlers bowling and the others fielding. The first wicket fell in the fifth over with Henry taking an absolute screamer to his right off Will C. The bowling innings began with the opening bowlers starting well with the score at 1/22 after the first ten overs. A steady flow of wickets began through Penrith’s top order, and they were 3 wickets down at first drinks. Then in the middle session we went through Penrith’s middle order taking 6 wickets. Finally, in the last 17 overs we finished the game off with the “foot on the throat” mentality. Dylan finishing with the best figures of the day with 3/16 off 8 overs, 1 maiden. Also the fantastic hands of James taking two difficult catches.
The game ended with Manly winning by 44 runs with a fantastic all-round performance from everyone. Thanks to all the parents who committed their time and effort into getting all players to the game and supporting us! Huge thank you to Clarke (and happy birthday). Well done to everyone, especially Henry.
Written by: Will Cunningham
