The boys turned up to a beautiful Manly Oval on a lovely morning mindful of the temperature later in the day. The sky was clear blue and a cracking game lay ahead.
Sutherland won the toss and chose to bat on a good cricket wicket that offered the bowlers a bit of movement.
Gabe Harris (0-24 off 5 overs) and Hayden Brown (1-8 off 4) took the new rock and bowling consistently without luck only taking the wicket of Nic Maddinson Jnr. Jack Edwards and Nick Osborne then came into the attack and took a few quick wickets leaving Sutherland at 5-49, Jack finishing with figures of 3-10 off 7 overs and Nick with 2-25 off 10 overs.
The tail then luckily wagged for Sutherland taking on the spinners, advancing the total past 100. Isaiah Vumbaca, Jonah Anderson and Ben Watts bowling well in partnership eventually cleaning up the tail for 133. A total we were comfortable with.
After a brilliant lunch, Jack and Aiden opened up. Jack fell early for 1, quickly followed by Ollie Davies and Isaiah leaving the score 3-30. Aiden looked comfortable at the crease until he ran himself out for 19. From here on we struggled losing consistent wickets with Sutherland bowling well. Nick (21) and Jonah (19) the only batsmen who put up any fight.
With rain interrupting play Jonah fell still needing 23 runs to win. Gabe and Hayden fought hard but we eventually fell short of the total by 8 runs.
A strong performance from the bowling group not supported by the batsmen in a disappointing effort.
We live to fight another day on Sunday taking on Mosman at Manly Oval.
