Saturday saw the Men conclude the first half of their season with a dominant showing against Campbelltown-Camden across the grades, the Tahs taking 4 wins from the 5 clashes with the Ghosts.
M1s bounced back strongly from an agonising defeat last start, with an important away victory. Losing the toss, a decent start from Joel Foster (21) was halted by a few quick wickets to have the Tahs 4/59, before Ryan Farrell (51) and Ned Hole (38) combined for a crucial 79 run partnership to shift the momentum, Faz anchoring the Tahs’ innings while Ned took the attack to the Ghosts’ bowlers. Late cameos from Lachlan Coyte (27) and Ryan Hadley (19*) pushing the score to a competitive 222. Early breakthroughs to Hadley and Tom Kaye kicked off the bowling innings, until the Ghosts consolidated to have the game in the balance. Both set batters were soon gone though as Bertie Foreman picked up the first before being involved again shortly after with a ripping catch off the bowling of Josh Seward. From there, a consistent flow of wickets including poles to Foreman and Joel Foster kept the Tahs on top, but it was Seward who starred picking up his maiden 1st Grade five-wicket haul in a classy display of fast bowling. The Tahs victorious by 51 runs as the Ghosts were bowled out for 171.
A spicy Manly Oval wicket saw 18 wickets fall in a bizarre finish as the Tahs went down in M2s. Sent into bat, it was tough for batting early on, the Tahs slumping to 6/61 despite a few batters getting starts of 10-15. Zach Trewartha counter-punched with a positive innings of 33 to momentarily halt the flow of wickets, combining with Roop Dhillon (23*) for a 36 run partnership, the most fruitful of the innings. Unfortunately, the fightback was short-lived as the Tahs were eventually bowled out for 122. Skipper Andrew Jamieson struck relatively early to keep hopes up, but with the wicket flattening out in the afternoon sun, it was tough going. At 2/98, the Ghosts looked in complete control needing only 24 more to win, but the Tahs wouldn’t go down without a fight, a run out from Roop Dhillon sparking a big collapse. This was followed by 3 wickets to Lachlan Ford, all bowled, and one to Michael Counsell, along with a second run out to Jacob O’Sullivan, as the Ghosts went from 2/98 to 8/118, but unfortunately the Tahs’ fightback was just not enough, losing by two wickets.
M3s made it 4 wins on the bounce with a thrilling 9 run victory away from home against the Ghosts. Batting first after losing the toss, it was a shaky start as two early wickets fell, before young gun Andrew Boulton (55) and the experienced Cam Merchant consolidated with a 77 run partnership to take the score to 2/91, Boulton with some splendid stroke play on his way to a classy half century. However, a middle-order collapse turned the game, until late contributions from Ellis Raymond and Matt Sunshine pushed the total to a defendable 151. Josh Coyte picked up the opening breakthrough, before the home side rebuilt to be in control at 1/49. From there, the Tahs fought brilliantly with the ball as all bowlers did their job with economical spells through the middle-late overs. George Cumming led the way with 3/32, to go with two wickets to Fraser Noack, and one apiece to Josh Lawson and Sam Hole, the Ghosts falling to 9/117 before a last wicket partnership threatened to take the game away from the Tahs. This was until Lawson came up clutch with the final wicket, his second, the Tahs victorious by 9 runs.
Adam Parkinson’s M4’s side flexed their muscle on Saturday with a thumping bonus point victory inside 2.5 hours at Grahams. Winning the toss and electing to bowl, the ever-reliable James Waddington did what he does best, bowling a relentless line and length to pick up 4/12 off 10 straight overs to kick off the Tahs’ bowling innings. His efforts with the ball were backed up superbly in the field by a direct hit run out from Keelan Mendel along with great catches to Jayden Kennedy and wicket-keeper Oscar Lucius. Josh Cooper joined the party with wickets of his own, followed by a wicket and run out to Kai Croft, before Cooper wrapped up the innings with his third wicket, the Ghosts all out for 50. With the intent to be clinical in the run chase, Nick Rigg and Kennedy did just that, plundering the Ghosts’ bowling to all parts of the ground to chase the total in 5.4 overs, Kennedy particularly dominant with 35* off 15 balls. 10 wicket bonus point win.
M5s were also on the road to Raby Oval, recording an excellent team win on the back of some sensational individual performances. Skipper Reiley Dunlop won the toss and elected to bat, but the worst possible start ensued as the Tahs’ lost a wicket with the first ball of the innings. Luke Watts (26) led the fightback, but at 3/67, the game was right in the balance. This was until the Kapoor brothers came together for a magnificent counter-attacking 101 run partnership, both Reuben (115) and Myles (54) batting with great intent to heap the pressure back on the home side. Reuben really showed his potential with 115 off 108 balls including 8 fours and 4 sixes, while Myles on debut stood up with a composed half century. A late cameo of 28 from Will Matheson taking the score to an imposing 9/295. Julian Osbourne struck early in the defence, dismissing the opposition skipper, before the Ghosts fought back with some aggressive batting. Matheson broke the dangerous partnership, which paved the way for Raja Ganeshraj to spin a web on the Ghosts’ middle order with superb figures of 6/26 from 10 probing overs, before Osbourne picked up the remaining two wickets for a bonus point 151 run victory.
Overall a successful weekend to head into the Christmas break, Seward, Kapoor and Ganeshraj the standouts amongst several impressive performances.
The Men resume their season on Saturday 13th of January with Round 10 against Bankstown, M1s, M3s and M5s on the road again, while M2s and M4s will be at home. Sunday the 14th sees PGs take on Randwick-Petersham in the conference semi-final at Manly Oval, while the Women are back on the park too with W1s, W2s and W3s up against Parramatta, and Brewers away to face Blacktown.
Until then, we wish all the Tahs’ community a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and look forward to the cricket season resuming in a few weeks’ time. Up the Tahs.
