Match Report – MWJCA Reps U13 Div 1 against Hawkesbury Reps U13 Div 1 @ Woodlands Oval 16OCT22
Summary – Manly won by 286 runs
Top Scorers: Angus Pike (117); Rohit Jayaram (97); Darcy Horstead (23)
Wickets: Harvey Matheson – 2; Mitch McCombe – 2; Caden Rosenkowitz -2, Lewis Cruickshank, Declan Webb, Tobias Overhoff – 1 each
Catches: Will Graham, Mitch McCombe and Darcy Horstead – 1 each
Stumpings – Darcy Horstead – 2
After weeks of wet and soggy weather, Manly were ecstatic to finally get a game and were looking forward to the start of the 2022/23 Rep Season. Manly were playing Hawkesbury away in the picturesque little town of Wilberforce and there was much excitement as the team pulled up to Woodlands Oval. The team had spent weeks of preparation between trial matches and intensive training in the build up to this fixture.
The outfield was dry and beautifully maintained, and with the sun shining brightly – everything was pointing towards a wonderful day for cricket.
The Manly squad was unchanged from the previous season and so there was a strong bond within the team although Noah Keam was absent due to illness so Manly could only field 11 players in what was looking to be a hot and tiring day.
As the parents swiftly moved into their well -rehearsed routines of pitching tents, the boys began a series of warm up exercises to get into game mode.
Captain Harvey Matheson won the toss and chose to bat. With the weather pundits predicting storms in the afternoon, it seemed a smart decision.
Manly’s opening pair Angus Pike and Rohit Jayaram strode out confidently ready to give Manly a strong start to the season and Rohit elected to face the first ball of the innings.
Rohit punched the very first ball confidently through cover and ran two with Manly scoring 5 runs off the first over. Both openers were cautious and respectful but continued stealing singles and rotating the strike. In the third over, Angus found the first boundary of the innings and with that, the gates firmly began to open and Manly began to accelerate. Angus began finding the boundary with alarming regularity and the score was suddenly 0/61 at 8 overs.
While Angus continued to punish the bowlers, his partner Rohit was scoring at a steady clip rotating strike smartly to Angus where possible and running furiously between wickets to challenge the fielders. There was a steady buzz in the Manly tent that erupted into loud cheers as Angus approached his 50 comfortably. The score was now 0/119 at the 15 over mark and soon Rohit also brought up his 50 as the score reached 0/142 at 18 overs. Both openers looked set, batting with confidence and ease. Angus was now rapidly nearing a potential maiden rep century and showed no nerves as he brought up his hundred with a cracking boundary past Mid-on. Stopping to briefly acknowledge the wild cheering from his team-mates, he quickly resumed his onslaught. However, in what must have seemed
like a massive reprieve for Hawkesbury, Angus finally spooned a catch and had to go. The celebrations from the Hawksbury boys rivalled those of Manly but they all paused to clap Angus off displaying tremendous sportsmanship. Angus and Rohit had put on a 197 run opening stand and given their team an excellent start. As Angus strode through a guard of honour from his team-mates and their siblings, Rohit greeted Harvey as he strode towards the crease. Having played a supportive role to Angus, Rohit began to take the lead and started finding the boundary with ease and frequency. Hawkesbury still had their work cut out for them. Soon Rohit was in the 90s and looking set to achieve a maiden rep century too. However, that would have to wait for another time as he was cruelly denied the opportunity running himself out on 97. As he strode off dejected and crestfallen, his mood improved as his team-mates gave him a guard of honour too. Manly were 2-248 at 30 overs
Darcy Horstead was now at the crease with 10 overs left and plenty of batting to follow. With Harvey batting steadily, Darcy went hard at the bowling and smoked a couple of boundaries before winding up for a massive six. Harvey suddenly popped a catch to point (17) and soon after Darcy was run out (23) with the score 5/291. Mitch McCombe and Lewis Cruickshank were the new batters at the crease and Lewis was unfortunate to be dismissed off only his second balled faced to what was a very difficult and challenging catch that was held after much fumbling. Will Graham walked and brought up the 300 with another massive six. Mitch (14) was dismissed soon after at the start off the 38th over. Tobias Overhoff walked in with the score at 6/302. With smart running and big hitting, both batsmen successfully added 22 extra runs off the final 3 overs, including a last ball six from Will (22*) and Tobias (8*) both marching off to cheers. Manly’s innings had concluded with a massive first innings total of 324.
During the lunch break, the team rested and reflected on the innings that was and discussed their bowling game plan. Soon, Manly was out in the middle as the Hawkesbury openers strode out with a sense of tremendous responsibility. Will Graham opened the bowling with a hostile spell of blistering pace and the openers did their best to keep him out whilst copping some body blows. Louis Corcoran opened at the other end and maintained the searing pace. With the heat climbing, it must have felt like a cauldron for the batsmen but they showed tremendous application and resolve and kept out the opening bowlers successfully. Lewis Cruickshank bowled first change and kept a tight and disciplined line stifling the batsmen. Tobias Overhoff took over at the other end and knocked the stumps over with his very first ball.
What followed was a lesson in disciplined line and length and Tobias finished his spell with an astounding 4 overs with 4 maidens and 1 wicket. Lewis would not be denied either and elicited an edge to gully that was plucked out from the sky at lightning speed by Mitch McCombe. Lewis finished with equally impressive figures of 4 overs, 1 run and 1 wicket. Captain Harvey decided to introduce spin at one end with Declan Webb who started with a maiden over and bowled himself at the other end. In Harvey’s first ball of his second over, he thudded one into the pads to dismiss the batsman LBW. In the final ball of the same over, he then clean bowled the next batsman for a 2 wicket maiden. Declan followed shortly thereafter inducing an edge that was smartly taken behind the stumps by Darcy Horstead. The score was now 5/20. Continuing with spin on both ends, the introduction of spin twins Mitch McCombe and Caden Rosenkowitz saw yet further lessons in flight, dip and turn building off Declan’s incredible spell.
In an all to familiar scene, the scorecard read “Stumped Horstead, bowled Rosenkowitz” as two batsman were deceived by Caden’s guile and caught short by Darcy’s lightning glovework in back to back overs. Hawkesbury were 7/37. Meanwhile, Mitch continued to trouble the batsmen with quality off-spin and was justly rewarded with an excellent catch taken by Will Graham. The score was now 8/37. Soon after, Darcy showed great presence of mind to run out a batsman who had stopped short
of his crease and the score was now 9/37. Mitch bowled the last batsman in the next over to bring Hawkesbury’s innings to a close on 38.
Despite the margin of defeat, the Hawkesbury team showed great spirit and sportsmanship throughout, particularly in instances where they proactively signalled boundaries to the umpire as well as appreciating Manly’s milestones. They were unlucky to come up against a Manly team that performed collectively at their very best and no doubt will learn from this encounter.
With a thundering start to the season, Manly will no doubt focus on what went well and what could be improved upon, They couldn’t have hoped for a better opening game and no doubt are looking forward to another great season of cricket.
