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Sydenham's MS Dhoni Orchestrates Prem Win
For those of us who marvelled at Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni’s successful 300 run chase against Australia two nights ago in Adelaide would have been enthralled by Sydenham’s T20 match against OBC at Sydenham on Thursday night – the Sydenham chase might have been a bit shorter, but the final over excitement was on another level again.
With a win and loss from their first two T20 matches last weekend a win was important for both teams to remain in contention in the competition. Sydenham won the toss and ask OBC to bat banking on the light remaining good through to the after 8pm finish. Although Daniel Stanley then started with a near run a ball 22, OBC lost early wickets to be 38-3 after 8 overs. A small recovery then looked possible with the dangerous Jeff Case and David Wakefield looking comfortable until a spectacular caught and bowled by Ryan Wallace saw Case back to the pavilion.
When Wakefield fell at 88-5 in the 16th over the OBC innings never recovered and the side was finally dismissed for 104 with 10 balls still left to bowl. Although Ryan had the best figures with 3-3-19, there was much credit also due to the misery performances Tom Agnew (4-0-11) and Jamie Hunt (3-2-9).
A known, and modest, five runs an over target just required some smart and controlled batting early on but that was not how things panned out. Although TJ put a few away early we lost wickets consistently, and at 28-3, Sydenham were suddenly in a worse comparative position to OBC at the same stage in their innings.
Players came and went but the only one that wasn’t going anywhere was Sydenham’s own MS Dhoni, Chris Harris. Despite the procession, Chris eked out the ones and twos and guided his various partners through such that he kept the score ticking over sufficiently such that he narrowed down the target to something finally within reach.
But discretion had also warranted and the recovery saw the required run rate pick up from around 5 an over mid-innings, to 10 an over by the final 4-5 overs. Ryan Jones and Jamie Hunt late in the order provided some support for Chris and ran hard to get the equation down to 20 required off the last two overs. Cool heads were required – Dhoni may have elected to leave the win until the final over, but Harry decided to make it much more exciting, the final ball of the match.
It got down to 10 required off the last over, then 4 off the last ball but with Harry in strike and carrying the result on his shoulders for his team. With a slow outfield, and boundary riders everyway, that wasn’t going to be easy. But the bowler marginally missed his mark, a half volley that had to be hit straight and between deep mid-on and mid-off on the longest boundary on the park – it was very well struck and the boundary taken much to the cheers of the Sydenham supporters on the sideline.
OBC can rightfully feel very lucky not to have won as it would have been just reward for the way in which they fought their way back into this match. Conversely the Sydenham batsmen in particular will know that their skipper got them out of jail on this one and will want to share the load a little more widely over coming matches
The T20 competition continues on Saturday with two home matches at Sydenham, Marist at 10.20am, then Riccarton at 2.45pm
T20 Competition starts with mixed results
Although the womens grades are progressively back over next couple of weeks, and the Youth boys not until late January/early Feb, the mens adult grades all recommenced after the holiday break with the morning grades all involved in two double header T20 matches each.
For our two Division One sides it was the recommencement of their T20 competition that they’d already started earlier in December, but it was the start of the competition for the Prem Men and they certainly couldn’t have asked for a one in their first match against East Shirley at Sydenham. After winning the toss and asking Easts to bat first they quickly had Easts 22/2 before Kenny McClure raced to 54 off 38 balls to steady the innings. And at 114/3 with 5 overs still to go Easts looked headed for a healthy 160-170 score.
However, the introduction of the slow bowlers had started to turn the tide. Jamie Hunt took a smart return catch to dismiss the dangerous McClure, and then bowled superbly in tandem with Connor Marshall through the middle and latter overs to extinguish any hopes of a big score by Easts. Connor in particular was outstanding as his leg spinners continue to impress as the season develops and his figures of 4-4-17 were further proof of that progress. Jamie’s 4-2-23 was the other stand-out.
Easts eventually closed at 136/6 which in the context of other lower winning scores around town on the day, a fair target to defend. However, the opening Sydenham partnership of 103 off just 12.3 overs quickly put paid to that. TJ Johnston in particular was superb in a format of the game that seemed perfectly designed for his batting talents. His 67 off 55 balls, and with a good back-up effort from Connor with a near run a ball 29, broke the back of the target which permitted Hayden Day a quick 20 off 15 balls as the target was reached at 141/4 in the 18th over.
After a rush over to Garrick Park the Prems then took on Lancaster Park who were also winners in their earlier match against Marist. Park batted first and set a similar target to the first match of 142/8. However, this time it was the Sydenham medium pacers who did the damage with Mitch Gardner’s 4-4-22 the best of them, but with great support from Tom Agnew’s 3-0-15 which saw Park struggle early on.
The Sydenham reply got off to a bad start when Connor was the first wicket to fall at 17, and then after living a charmed life on the back of poor Park fielding TJ also went for 23 with the score at 55/2. However, the run rate was well under control, and although Hayden Day went quickly with the score at 61/3, the partnership between Chris Harris and Ryan Wallace looked more than capable of getting us through. Ryan looked impressive and in total charge in his 46 off just 24 balls but then fell to the always low percentage reverse sweep shot. Taylor Irie failed to score and suddenly at 103/6 alot fell on Chris Harris’ shoulders. Comfortably ticking along at a run a ball himself, Harry was unlucky to pick out the fielder at point with a slashing shot that saw an equally fine catch rather than the boundary intended.
From that point, With the run rate then close to 9’s, the lower order and tail failed to recover the lost ground and we were eventually bowled out 26 runs short in the final over for 115.
So one win out of two has Sydenham in the middle of the pack with just Park and Saints able to get two wins on the day. The next match is this Thursday at Sydenham against OBC starting at 5.30pm. The match will be live streamed on our website as usual but we encourage club members to get down to the Park to support the guys.
The Division One sides also commenced their T20 competition on Saturday but managed only one win from four matches played.
Div 1 won their first up match but lost their second one. Lancaster Park batted first at Garrick Park and thanks largely to Preetham Pagadala (4-4-24) they held Park to 86/6 in their 20 overs. Matt Day’s 41 dominated the Sydenham response, and together with Daniel Thomson’s 18* and Liam White’s 10*, coasted Sydenham through to the total 90/3 in the 16th over. We don’t have the details for the 2nd match on the day against BWU but understand Sydenham lost.
Div 1 Suddenly Sydenham‘s first match on Sydenham 2 saw Merivale Papanui post a competitive 143/6 (Paddy Wickes 4-2-23 & Andrew Moulton 4-2-26) but in reply Sydenham struggled to 76 all out in the 18th over with the promising Will Andrews the best of the batsmen with 17.
Their 2nd match went along similar lines with championship leader OBC getting to 169/4 with James Simpson (4-2-23) and Archie Goodrick (2-1-7) the best of the bowlers, then in reply with only Sahan Perara (11) and Marty Crook (19) managed to get to double figures, Sydenham struggled through to 68 all out in the last over.
The Div 4 Goats beat OBC – OBC 77/10 and Sydenham 78/5 – No other match details available
The Div 6 Cardinals had a rare loss when they went down to Parklands on Parklands Domain. Solid batting down the order from Geordie Dann (46), Kieran Williams (26) Bruce Day (30), James Stokes (44), and Adrian Patchett (39) saw the Cardinals set a challenging target of 234/7. However, with Parklands opener Dan Linden making an unbeaten 104* they coasted to the target for the loss of only two wickets.
The Div 6 All Stars suffered a 111 run loss to New Brighton at Rawhiti Domain after New Brighton scored 206/6 (Mark Flowerday 8-2-29 & Abe Atherton 8-0-16) and Sydenham only managing to muster 95 all out in reply (Milin Paul 22)
The Presidents Cardinals had an exciting match against competition leaders St Albans on Sydenham 3. Sydenham had a very strong batting side out and high hopes of a big score especially when Kelvin Scott (44) and Matt Loose (71) put on 97 for the 2nd wicket at a good clip to take the side through to 110/2 at one point. However the innings folded from there with the last seven batsmen falling for just 17 runs between them and leaving Saints a more modest target of 166 tan looked likely earlier.
With James Alabaster scoring 78 from opener, Saints were then always in the chase, and despite the always miserly bowling from Ken Julian (8-2-24), and solid efforts from Warren Guy (5-2-24), and Anthony Wild (4-2-13). Saints needed just four runs off the last over with last last pair at the crease, but managed to get there despite a “very close” LBW decision given not out in that over.
The Presidents Hospital team also lost their match against Hornby at Denton Park. Hornby complied a very solid 199/9 with Kelum Mendis the best of the Sydenham bowlers with 8-4-40. The Hospital reply never got momentum with some getting starts and no one carrying on before hospital were eventually bowled out for 130 with nine overs remaining.
The Div 8 Tamils completed a poor day for the afternoon sides with a 24 run loss to Heathcote at Centennial Park. Mukesh Kapila was the best of the Tamil bowlers with his 3-4-7 during Heathcote innings of 154 all out off 35 overs. In reply the Tamils were well placed at one point as the numbers 2 & 3 Chidambaram Palaniappan (25) and David Jayapaul (32) got them off to a good strart, but they poved to be the only batsmen to get to double figures as the side slipped to be all out for 130.
