JOHN MCCALLUM, CONVENOR OF CRICKET
Waverley Cricketers enjoyed some of their strongest performances with their bowling around the grounds, and boys and their coaches should be congratulated with their level of effort. Many teams are seeing their training focus bear fruit – particularly in the standards of bowling and fielding. This week sees many of our sides in their final round of matches, so we hope to build further on this momentum to end the term strongly.
The batting in general is the one area needing teams to improve their focus and application in, and two positive examples from the weekend demonstrate some key batting improvements all boys and their teams can adopt.
Example 1: Backing yourself to balance aggression and defence – Jack Hickey’s fantastic innings of 116 runs in the 10As. Opening the innings, Jack begun his innings watching the ball carefully, moving his feet and picking up many singles and the boundaries while there were more gaps in the field. Jack was quick to be aggressive with any loose bowling, piercing the gaps to put pressure back on the opposition. The only thing missing for the 10As was a big partnership with Jack to get them to the 245 run target. Despite this, amazing courage was shown by an injured Sam Connolly to ditch his crutches and take the field at number 11 in order to help Jack and the team score the last 40 runs to win. Congratulations Sam for your dedication to your team and desire to make a difference for your mates.
Example 2: Enthusiastic and smart running between the wickets can itself win matches – seen by the 8As in their last over thriller to beat Cranbrook by 3 wickets with 3 balls to spare. Both teams were evenly matched across strong batting and bowling, but it was the eagerness of the 8A batsmen to place balls to the gaps and take off. This is even more important for teams when batting second and chasing a total. The 8As gained another 20 runs by their clever calling and backing up; which aided some great innings from Liam Wood with 33, supported by 17 apiece to Vidar Sundkvist, Hirav Gandhi and Scott Swinburn. Charles Hely-Hammond and Freddie Le Vay were cool under pressure in the final 2 overs to keep running singles at every opportunity and claim a great win.
Improved team performances from both the 10B sides and 9As lead to great wins at Queens Park. The 10Bs scored a strong 6/139 with Jack Rigg scoring a classic late innings 41 not out. Oscar Mason was a key bowler in taking a big wicket and restrict Sydney Boys high to just 113. The 9As had a 60 run win due to excellent team bowling and fielding. Edward Regan claimed 4 wickets, and 2 each for Max Brooks and Daniel McSweeney. The 9Bs, 8Bs and 8Cs are not far from a win and developing that extra belief and teamwork with bat and ball will bring more success in coming matches. The 1st and 2nd XI both fell disappointingly short of a 1st innings win, with a Coaches report below. Great reward has also come for Mac Jenkins from Year 12, who is not only playing 1st Grade Cricket alongside Dave Warner at Randwick, but was also invited by the Touring Indian side to train with them at the SCG this Thursday and Friday prior to T20 matches against Australia. Mac’s similarities to Australia’s Ashton Agar are prompting this request, and Mac will certainly benefit greatly and learn from training with such elite cricketers. Rumour has it Virat Kohli has stated he is too fearful to attempt to reverse sweep Mac, due to the amount of tun Mac gets out of the rough.
1st XI Report – Day 1 v St Aloysius
MR G ELLIOT AND MR R BRYANT, COACHES
The second day of play against St Aloysius at Queens Park was set to be big, with Waverley 8/57 chasing 107 for a first innings victory. At the crease, Harry Schultz and Liam Andrews walked out confidently and with purpose. The team sat in the stand without moving for the first hour. The boys played exceptionally well, they managed to keep the scoreboard ticking over without giving any chances away.
Harry Schultz worked one past gully and chose to take on the fielder’s arm and unfortunately just fell short. The score was then 9/85. Out walked the Captain of Cricket Ryan Smith, if we were ever in need of a captains knock it was to be then. Andrews and Smith continued the positive form from the previous partnership and worked the ball around. It was only to an outstanding delivery from the Aloysius leg spinner that took the off stump of Liam Andrews. He played exceptionally well and batted appropriately to the match situation. Waverley were dismissed for 90.
All was not lost, as the boys then took to the field for a fiery 5 over spell before lunch and the first wicket fell at 44, with the run rate no more than 2 and over. The boys continued to toil and were able to get Aloy’s to 7/133 with an hour and a half remaining in the day. Lachlan Forrest continued where he left off last week, bowling with exceptional control and variation. He finished up with 7 wickets for the match and should be commended for his efforts with the ball in hand.
The opposition did not entertain the idea of declaring and asking Waverley to chase 161 in 20 overs. That should be seen as a complement to us yet at the same time disappointing to not get the opportunity for an outright victory.
The boys played very well in patches but unfortunately were not able to claw our way back from poor session with the bat on day 1. Next week is Cranbrook at Hordern Oval, and we are looking forward to the challenge and getting our second win this month against the local rivals.
School Holiday Cricket Clinics – All invited
All Waverley Cricketers are also invited to attend one of 2 Cricket Clinics in the School holidays – both held at the Senior School between 9am-3pm, and will feature excellent programs focussing fun and all Cricket skills under the tuition of specialist cricket coaches.
- December 2- Day Cricket Clinic
- Thursday December 6 and Friday December 7 – Run by Pro Performance Cricket, with info and registrations at https://www.trybooking.com/ZIIZ
- January 2- Day Cricket Clinic
- Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd January 2019 – Run by Steve Waugh Cricket Academy, with registration details TBA
