15 NSW Youth Championship Weblin Shield, Weldon Oval, 19th November 2023
Batting Innings: By Lucas Gleeson
Manly Warringah arrived at Weldon oval after a beautiful breakfast rearing to go after a confidence-boosting win last week against Northern Districts. Lachie for the 4th time this season won the toss and elected to bat with Aidan and Paddy heading out to the middle. After a good start, the lads were 0/15 after 3, before Aidan was bowled an absolute peach that jagged back from well outside off to castle into his stumps. Two overs later, Paddy was also sent back to the change room from a ball that stayed relatively low.
Lachie joined Aidan at the crease, and after some fabulous fours between them, and the sharp rotation of strike, the two had settled the ship and the team were at 45, before Aidan departed to another ball that stayed low. Miles was sent in to partner with Lachie in an attempt to replicate their fabulous partnership from the week prior, and the two did not disappoint. It only took Miles a mere 3 balls to hit his first six of the day, and it was certainly not his last. The pair continued to rotate the strike and find the boundary, with Lachie achieving his 2nd 50 of the rep season. In the 36th over, Miles targeted the spin and took his score to 50, with 19 coming off the over.
Shortly after Lachie was dismissed, ending what had been a crucial partnership, tallying to a 122 run stand, bringing the teams score to 167. One ball later, Will was bowed to ball of the day, spinning back to take out his leg peg. Miles didn’t stop on his big-hitting ways, with Stew doing his job and giving the strike to Miles. Stew eventually departed for a selfless innings, and in the 48th over, Miles brought up his 1st ever rep hundred! Within an over, Tom and Miles were both caught in pursuit of ramping up the already big score. Miles innings of 110 off just 90 balls saw 11 sixes, and match winning knock! Oscar and Harry then sealed a fabulous innings, with Oscar hitting a fabulous cover drive for four. The lads ended on 8/235.
Bowling innings: By Oscar Hansen
We started our bowling innings, very confident in our ability to bowl and field well and win the game. Thanks to Miles and Lachie we had a great score of 235 that we knew we could defend. Oscar and Thomas opened the bowling, with Thomas getting the first breakthrough in the very first over. The batter got a leading edge and Harry took a well-judged catch at square leg. After a fairly tight spell from Oscar and a spell from Thomas which provided a crucial early wicket, Stew and Gleeso came on to bowl. They restricted the runs very well and applied immense pressure on the batters. These tight spells as well as excellent fielding resulted in two runouts. First, Malone was run out thanks to a brilliant direct hit by Aidan Kurtis. Then the main batter Arnav Yadav was runout thanks to another great direct hit by Lachie. From there, it just got better for Manly. Harry and Freddie came on to bowl, and more pressure on the batters resulted in another runout with a great throw from Aidan. Freddie then got a wicket with Harry taking a comfortable catch. A partnership then started to build, before an unexpected but amazing spell of off-spin by Aidan B. He broke the partnership and finished with sensational figures of 2-7 off 5 overs. After that, Aidan K got another amazing runout, this time with a bit of luck involved. Finally, Stew cleaned up the tail with two wickets. Manly had bowled Inner West out for 147 and completed a comfortable 88-run win against the supposed top of the table. This will give us great confidence for next week’s quarter-final clash against Penrith.