Jake Osborne was in fine form in the Round 4 Green Shield clash with Sydney University
Green Shield Round 4 – Manly Warringah 4/169 (J Osborne 93*, N Barnet 20) def Sydney University 168 (L Franks 4/28, J Osborne 3/23)
Today’s match against Sydney University was a very important game. Not only because points were needed, but also for the boys to perform well after last weeks’ disaster against Blacktown.
This morning it was a great toss to win as conditions were perfect to bowl. It was a seamers paradise as skipper Luca Franks proved by taking 4 wickets. However his first over was a mixed bag, sending down three wides but then ripping out their openers off stump and sending it flying.
Aidan opened up at the Sydney Road end and didn’t have much luck. He bowled a great, tight first spell. Later on Kyle Martin was handed the ball, which is a rare sight and caused a few laughs in the stand. It even made Jordy pull out his phone and start filming but to everyone’s amazement he showed us his fantastic bowling skills by taking a wicket in his second over.
Jake another part timer bowled his first spell of the season and managed to take 3 very handy wickets.
Our performance in the field was not the best, letting ourselves down with a few dropped catches and missed run out opportunities. However Bryron Bates closed out the innings by amazing us all with his brilliant piece of fielding by knocking down the stumps with a direct hit at mid-off which made us all chuckle.
Apart from writing the match report, the main reason for me (Josh Park – currently injured) to make an appearance today at Manly Oval was of course the magnificent lunch. To put it simply, I filled my boots and it was fantastic.
Sadly, my lunch was interrupted by the start of our second innings where we were chasing a decent score of 169 runs to win.
The boys didn’t get off to the best of starts, after losing a few early wickets we found ourselves 3-22. Then Ned Barnet and the youngest member of the team Jake Osborne both steered the ship steadily and put on a brilliant batting display. However Neds’ dismissal looked a little harsh from the sideline but Jake carried on to demolish Sydney Unis’ bowling attack by scoring a brilliant 93* which included 9 fours and 5 sixes (4 of them consecutively in 1 over). After Ned’s departure, Will Greenland supported Jake with 16* which brought home the victory for the Manly boys and enabled us to sing the team song.
Next game on Thursday is at Manly Oval against Fairfield – Liverpool and hopefully we can get another win.
Josh Park
