Round 2 Manly Warringah vs Blacktown 16/10/22
By Thomas Walker
We all arrived at Alwyn Lindfield Reserve at 8:50 in the morning. The sun was shining and it was set to be a good day of cricket. We set up the tents, got our seats ready under the gazebo and began our warm up.
With the sprints done, stretches completed and fielding exercises finished we sent Lachy off for the toss. Lachy did very well in winning the coin toss and elected to bat. The throw downs were quickly underway for our top four batters being Paddy, Aidan K, Aidan B and Lachy.
It was soon time for our openers to head out to the middle and we all took our place in the gazebo.
The boys held out for the first two overs until Paddy was given out, caught at slip. So our score was 1 for 3 in the third over.
So, Aidan B strode out to the crease and started his innings off with a single. The runs came slowly until the seventh over where Aidan K was caught on the leg side to a good delivery. At this point the score was 2 for 14 but we still had hope in Lachy and Aidan B to steady the ship and pile on the runs… unfortunately this did not happen as Aidan B was out 4 overs later on a score of 14.
Rohan was out two overs after this and that’s where we were all starting to get a bit nervous, however we were deep in a debate about whether a leave was a shot or not so the nerves weren’t too bad (this discussion lasted us about an hour).
So it was now up to Will and Lachy. These two built a great partnership and together put on 34 runs over 14 overs until Will was unfortunately caught and so this amazing partnership came to a close with Will on 17 off of 49 deliveries.
Miles came out to face a spinner who did not get the memo that spin bowling is supposed to be quite loopy, however everyone was on the edge of their seat because we all were in preparation to take cover if Miles hammered the ball for 6. However, Miles was bowled to a very good delivery that spun past the bat and hit his stumps.
Miles came off with everyone disappointed for him but slightly relieved they hadn’t been hit in the head by a shot from Miles and now Thomas was in.
Thomas and Lachy put on some runs together despite a few dodgy calls on Thomas’ side (lucky Lachy’s pretty quick). But this all stopped when Thomas was given out LBW when the same spinner who got Miles out hit Thomas on the thigh guard. They half heartedly appealed, unlike the earlier appeals which were rather lengthy and loud and Thomas was out (I’m still a bit confused by that as I’m 6 foot 2 and my thigh guard is a good 15 cm above the stumps, but anyway…).
At this point everyone was quite panicked as we were at 7 for 69 at the end of the 32nd over. However Oscar did very well in giving Lachy the strike and Lachy was playing his part in knocking away the two’s and getting the occasional four. However Oscar was unfortunately bowled by chopping the ball onto his stumps.
Gleeso came out and got a few leg byes away for Lachy to take strike and hit a few runs but Lucas was soon caught and our final batter came out: Freddie ‘Schnitzel’ Schneidereit.
Freddie quickly managed to get off strike on a free hit that the whole team thought was going for four but hardly got out of the ring. Bit unfortunate really. Lachy then got his final four runs of the innings finishing up on 36* off 84 balls.
Freddie held out against a quick bowler for five balls straight until his middle stump was taken out on the last delivery and so the innings was over in 41 overs and with a grand total of 95. Now I’m going to be honest, its not the largest of totals but we kept our heads up high and maintained the mentality that we could win.
We had lunch and then went out for the second half of the game to defend our total.
Thomas bowled the first over and finished up with a maiden and then it was Oscar who went for only one run. We continued bowling and continued trying to constrict the runs but a few leaked through occasionally and these runs are what really put the pressure on us. But the pressure was reversed when Oscar took the first wicket in the fifth over when the batter nicked off to Will’s safe hands.
After that the pressure was slowly put back on us as they were quickly picking up runs but we again slowed them down and made them think twice about whether they could defeat us or not.
Lucas struck the batter on the pad and the umpires finger was quickly in the air. At this point it was the eleventh over and they were already on 35 runs, a third of the way to our total but we kept fighting. A good ball by Aidan B which was caught by Aidan K and it was clear the opposition was starting to get a bit nervous.
They were already three down and Lucas took yet another wicket with Miles sprinting in from the boundary to take an absolute blinder of a catch. Now we were really in this fight.
A tall batter who seemed to be our final problem came to the crease, we all knew that if we got this one batter out the game was nearly guaranteed to be ours. The batters started to build a partnership for seven overs and brought their total to 4 for 66 until Lachy got the edge and Will took another great catch.
The next over Oscar got an LBW by another questionable decision by the umpire, it was a tad high but a wicket none the less and a great bowling effort.
Only an over later Lachy bowled the ball to the batsman who hit it up to Thomas who took the catch at head height, great accuracy by the batter to pick out the tall man!
So with this the game was in our grasp, we just had to get three more wickets and stop them from getting 30 runs and we would win. That break through happened three overs later with Thomas taking a wicket with a great catch by Lachy and then taking an LBW the very next ball, with this the game was guaranteed to be ours.
Lachy came in the next over and took an amazing caught and bowled catch to seal the game, we all sprinted in to him and he may have permanent brain damage from the amount of head whacks he got. We shook hands and celebrated as a team, well done boys and good luck for next week.
Aidan B, you’re up for next week. You don’t have to write a thousand words mate.
