NSW YC Creak Shield
27 October 2024, Mittigar Reserve, Blacktown
Blacktown 3/148 (J Renshaw 1/10, T Davis 1/25, S McKim 1/5) defeated Manly 6/146 (R.Read 32, L Willis 28, J Dale 31*).
Manly arrived at Mittigar Reserve to a little bit of a cool and overcast conditions in Blacktown.
Everyone was excited for the game when we got there. We all went for a jog and a stretch and did our early ritual of talking about our club games on the Saturday with a little bit of banter! After that chat we then close ranks and are now playing for Manly and are one team under the Baggy Blue!
At the warmup we had to recognise our skipper, Jack Maris who had just come back from an injured toe and was fit for the game. In a special moment Talon Davis was also presented with his Baggy Blue, not by Darren, Gary, or Matt but by Tal’s dad. I think the whole team could see the huge excitement and smile on Tal’s face. Everyone knew that this was his dream and he had worked hard for it and had grabbed this opportunity. Congratulations Talon. We were also missing our form player in the team, Cooper Gabriel who had been called up to play for the Div 1 side. We were all so excited for Coops and his opportunity to get promoted into the Div 1’s.
Manly won the toss and elected to bat.
Jack started back into his captaincy well, winning the toss and electing to bat first. As Reuben and Luke headed out to open the batting the sun was finally coming up and the temp was beginning to rise. Reuben took the first ball and blocked it beautifully. Manly got off to an absolute flyer with Reuben hitting 2 fours in the first over. He was hitting the ball cleanly with Luke tapping it around the corners looking to try and rotate the strike where possible.
Blacktown’s fielding was very tight, and their bowlers provided very few bad balls. Luke hit his first four off a block that eventuated into four overthrows! Reuben continued to bat beautifully playing some lovely drives and pull shots using the full face of his blade.
Reuben and Luke took us to an opening partnership of 60 before some confusion in running between wickets where there was a run on offer and Reuben unfortunately was run out for a well complied 32. Sam McKim as our only left hander in the team came out to the crease as our number 3 to help break up the bowler’s line. Sam was eager for runs as he had made a classy 39 the day before in club cricket. The spinners for Blacktown were bowling insanely well and Sam got and absolute peach of a ball that kept low and skittled him. Sam has been very unlucky in each of his innings so far for Manly. Next in came Oscar who tapped a single and then faced the same spinner that Sam had been bowled out by. Oscar was also bowled by a ball that kept very low and crept under his bat.
Ethan Renshaw came in at number 5 with Manly now 3 for 70. Unfortunately, another run out occurred and Luke Willis was back in the sheds with Manly now 4/72. Jack Dale strode to the crease with some very good batting form across both club and rep cricket with a need for Manly to both maintain wickets yet push the scoring rate along. Jack began hitting some nice shots and Ethan a boundary before Ethan was caught for 7. We were now relying on some big hitting in our later overs. Grayson came in and began hitting it around the park with a couple of important boundaries before being dismissed for 15. He was replaced by Ishaan, another of our bigger hitters. He and Jack Dale put on an important partnership of 35 runs for the last wicket. Jack really began finding the middle of his bat and made a very important 31 n.o with Ishaan making 15 n.o. Manly had put together a very defendable 146 off their 40 overs but we would have to bowl and field very well to win the match.
When bowling we were defending 146 runs. With Jake and Ishan up first we restricted the runs well. The fourth ball of the 1st over saw Jake taking the 1st big wicket of the game with Dylan taking a great catch.
Ishan with his speedy bowling that got the batters shaking in their shoes and kept the bowling very tight only conceding 3 runs off 3 overs. Then when JD and Jack came the batters started hitting a couple of boundaries and Blacktown were on track to chase us down.
The fielding in the first 15 overs was very tight and everyone was very switched on. Grayson came on and helped restrict the run rate again with great bowling. conceding only 5 runs off 3 overs. Dylan was also bowling very well but unfortunately hurt his foot in his run up and had to go off the field At this stage Blacktown had started taking chances and were looking to run singles almost every ball.
Sam bowled well again restricting the run rate and took the second wicket in the 29th over. (4 overs / 2 maidens/1 for 5 ). Talon also bowled some good overs (7overs, 1/27runs) and got us our 3rd wicket in the 36th over but sadly Blacktown passed our score in 37.1 overs. We almost had it.
REPORT by Luke Willis – (Intro and Batting Innings) and Grayson Jacobs – (Bowling Innings)