15 NSW Youth Championship Weblin Shield, Weldon Oval, 22nd October 2023
We arrived at Weldon Oval for our first game at the home of Warringah Shires. We walk to the café for our usual home game breakfast. When we arrive back, we notice the scoreboard was up and running with Carol on 251 not out and AC on 60. What a great start!
Lachie won the toss and with the wicket looking flat and runs having been scored on the ground the previous few weeks, we decided to bat. Paddy and Aidan walk out to bat. Aidan faces first ball and notices the ball is doing nothing, we knew there were going to be a lot of runs scored.
Paddy and Aidan got off to a flyer of a start being 0-48 after the eight over until Paddy top edged a ball to be dismissed. Aidan B then joined Aidan K at the crease and kept on flying. They were hitting the ball all around the ground until Aidan K brought up his 50, but we knew we had to keep on going because we need a lot more runs. Until Aidan B then got unlucky and got dismissed to a ball that didn’t bounce. The score is now 2/147 when Lachie then came out to bat with the job to get bat on ball and that he did. Aidan and Lachie kept on going strong bringing up the 200 mark with plenty of overs left. Then a special moment occurred when Aidan brought up his magnificent hundred.
Lachie and Aidan kept on flowing on and the runs were coming easier and easier now. Lachie then departed for 29 with the score 3/234. Miles then came out looking to find the boundary and that he did. By smacking the ball all around the ground. Aidan’s magnificent knock came then came to an end by reaching 144. Will then came out to bat and his job was to get singles and let Miles hit big. They both played their role very well until Miles’ knock came to an end 9 runs short of the 300 mark. Will the found the boundary a couple of times until he fell with the score at 6/303. We put up a total of 303 but knew we would have to bowl well because it is a flat wicket. We then enjoyed Kate’s pulled pork for lunch while listening to music.
We then came out to field with a lot of runs on the board, but we later realisedit might not be enough. Sutherland get off to a quick start by attacking our bowlers. Oscar and Thomas were getting some swing but the Sutherland openers wanted to attack. We then start to panic and brought the spinners on early in the 9th over. They still batted well until Lucas got the breakthrough with a catch straight to short cover to Miles. We knew that it was going to be a long day and we would have to try hard to win this match. We kept on bowling the spinners until the second wicket fell 2 runs later which was an excellent piece of fielding by Harry at mid-wicket. Then 20 runs later another wicket falls, another run out but by Lachie this time. At this point we had Sutherland 3/96. Until another partnership started to brew.
We knew that Sutherland had a good batter Kobi Robinson, and we knew we had to get him out early. We started to think we were in the game until these batters put on another 76 runs until we get our third wicket which was a caught behind off Stew’s bowling. We knew that they were still in the game and we needed to get Kobi Robinson out. Freddie was bowling nicely but unfortunately had to bowl to Kobi Robinson who was now going well. Kobi kept on smashing us all over the ground until Stew got the 5th wicket. Kobi Robinson was still in though which was still dangerous. That is until Tom gets Kobi out 12 runs later with a caught behind. We now know that the game is ours. We then just chip away at the tail until the 50 overs end. Manly win by 26 runs. We then enjoy the rest of the evening playing music in the change rooms and eating leftovers. Thanks also to Finn who was great in the field.
Written by Paddy
