South Brisbane v Western Suburbs - U19
Men’s U19 One Day Competition
Round 4
24 January 2021 at Graceville Memorial Park No. 1
Warm, but with a light breeze from time to time during the day meant it was a pretty good day for cricket. Joe Rangiah won the toss and elected to bat. A solid, but steady, start came undone in the 10th over with the score on 32. From there, it was a procession. Patience was needed to “get in” on a slow wicket. Unfortunately, not a lot of patience was shown by the top order.
Will Gray and Matthew Wiseman bucked the trend; digging in to add a valuable 47 for the 7th wicket.
At the fall of Wiseman’s wicket in the 41st over, Justin Faber joined Gray in a superb 8th wicket partnership of 65 very valuable runs in just 9 overs. With Gray anchoring and Faber blasting, the pair steered Souths to a defendable 179; a remarkable total given they were 6/63 at the halfway mark.
The start of the Wests innings bore an eerie resemblance to Souths. A solid, but steady start gave way to a couple of quick wickets at the end of the power play. Ali Nasar grabbed a good catch off Justin Faber and Connor McMillan was on hand to take one off Rangiah.
The resemblance in innings stopped there however, as three catches were grassed in the next 17 overs allowing Wests to gain the upper hand in a 58 run partnership.
The break-through came in the 29th over when Faber settled under one at long off from the bowling of Connor McMillan. Faber was on the spot again three overs later, this time at mid-wicket, to pouch a pull shot off Rangiah and dismiss opposing skipper, Max Carlyon, three short of a half-century. A Wiseman catch off McMillan brought about the 5th wicket in the 35th over leaving Wests 77 to get from 90 balls.
A 20 run revival over the next 6 overs was halted when Faber snuck one through the batsman’s defence to make it 6/123 and the Faber show continued 4 overs later, when he claimed his 3rd, via a sharp Rangiah catch, to make it 7/137.
The required run rate continued to climb as the Souths bowling zeroed in on the final wickets. Will Storrs took his first and Faber his 4th via Nasar catches in the 46th and 47th overs and Storrs picked up the final wicket in the 48th.
A great fight-back by well-led Souths on the day.
