Upskill Cricket v Napoleons
Winter Warehouse 2023 Saturday A1 Round 10
29 July & 5 August 2023 at Marchant Park 10
Day One:
GUESS WHAT? WE WON A TOSS! and we batted. So, not sure if we actually lost a toss at all in the previous four 2 dayers! Thienu Chandrasekaram nabbed two wickets in the 4th over to have Upskill in trouble at 2/10 before Luke Ronday and Matt Taviani dug in for the next 19 overs, adding 70 runs for the third wicket. Napoleons skipper Rajesh Pillai brought his team back into the match with wickets in successive overs just after drinks, then, Campbell Farrelly and Ronday added a cautious 39 for the 5th wicket, taking Upskill to within 13 minutes of the tea break, before Ronday lofted one to was out for a well-compiled 77 from 117 balls. It was 6/131 two overs after tea when Shreyas claimed a wicket in his first over, but from that point it was all Upskill. Farrelly and Chase Rodgers battled hard early against tight bowling. The partnership reached 50 from 110 balls, then accelerated nicely over the final 9 overs. Both players posted 50s and the 100 partnership came up from 166 balls three balls before the end of play.
Day Two:
With Campbell Farrelly called up for club duties, Nick Strong stepped in to resume the innings with Chase Rodgers. 237 became 251 after just one over as Strong clubbed two 4s and a massive six, off the back foot, over cow! Rodgers added four to his overnight 66 before being trapped in front by Jatinder Singh for 70 in the 7th over of the day. Strong’s 30 from 29 balls came to an end when he hit one straight back to Jatinder four overs later. Amreen Kahlon and Om Bikadiya added 11 to take Upskill to a formidable 9/282, before the innings ended after 50 minutes of play.
Looking down the barrel of fielding with nine players, Esther Ronday donned the whites and joined Upskill in the field! Inspired spells by Matt Taviani 12-5-1-13 and Ben Ronday 8-2-0-21 at the start of the innings kept Napoleons to just 51 runs from the first 20 overs. A late flurry before Tea took the score to 1/82 from 27 at the break; the sole wicket falling to Taviani. A sharp C&B to Om Bhikadiya two overs after Tea made it 2/86. Three fours in an over to new batsman, Shreyas, livened things up a bit, but when Chase Rodgers snuck one through him a few overs later, it was 3/113. Opener Tejas Ashok was joined by the typically aggressive Nishil Aman. The pair added a valuable 56 in a 13-over partnership, before a sensational mini-collapse of 3/12 from 14 balls. Two catches to Bhikadiya off Taviani (the second beautifully judged in front of the sight screen on the southern boundary) and a sensational outfield catch to Rodgers off Amreen Kahlon, removed Tejas for 63, and the dangerous Santosh Nistala and Thienu Chandrasekaram. The stubborn Nishil remained bringing up a 50 in the penultimate over of the day and guiding Napoleons to 7/238 at stumps.
With much of the team committed to Grade trials in coming weeks, it was decided to step aside from finals.
Some nice words were exchanged at the close of play.
Sensational photos by the one and only Doug O’Neill were snapped on the day and are included below. Thanks Doug. 🙏
