Upskill Cricket v Red Dogs
Winter Warehouse 2023 Saturday A1 Round 9
15 and 22 July 2023 at Marchant Park 10
Day One:
Luke Ronday and Chase Rodgers collected a couple of boundaries each in the opening overs, but the party came to a screaming halt when Ronday popped one up on the on-side from the first ball of the 4th. Seeing something in the wicket, Red Dogs skipper, Danny Young brought himself and Hayden Sheppard into the attack in the 5th and 6th overs and they continued unchanged through to over 30 picking up 6/71 in the process; Chase Rodgers contributing 36 of these. Justin Basi and Amitoj Sidhu fought back with a 35 run partnership for the 8th wicket but Basi’s wicket on the stroke of Tea made it 8/125. Two wickets to Robbie Young in the 45th over wrapped up the Upskill innings for a modest 137: Danny Young and Hayden Sheppard finishing with 3 wickets each for Red Dogs.
Campbell Farrelly and Matt Taviani picked up a wicket each in the opening 12 overs, but whatever demons there may have been in the pitch, must have been frightened away by the ferocity of Red Dogs opener, Harry Dobson. Dobson clobbered 11 fours and a six on his way to 79 from 45 balls; the last 30 of these coming from just 12 balls. A lucky deflection from Om Bhikadiya onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end brought an end to the Dobson onslaught in the 17th over with the score on 96! The 30 that came from the remaining 6 overs in the day seemed sedate in comparison, but included two wickets in four balls to Chase Rodgers and Ben Ronday thanks to catches by Farrelly and Will Whatmore. Red Dogs trailing by 11 with 5 wickets in hand at stumps.
Day Two:
It took five overs on day two for Red Dogs to overhaul the Upskill first innings total. In a lion-hearted performance, Campbell Farrelly (18-3-4-77) bowled unchanged for 12 consecutive overs picking up wickets in his 4th, 5th and 7th overs of the day, to have Red Dogs 9/172. On 12 at the fall of the 9th wicket, James Young then launched an extraordinary assault; smashing 82 from 62 before being caught by Taviani off the bowling of Amreen Kahlon for 94. Young received great support from No. 11 Hugh Mason who contributed 17 out of a partnership of 101 for the 10th wicket.
Trailing by 136, Upskill had 37 overs to negotiate in their second innings. Half way through the innings, Upskill found themselves at 3/49 with 19 overs to play; Nav Kahlon contributing 26 of these. Matt Taviani and Ben Ronday compiled a very useful partnership of 51 from 58, before Taviani (36) lofted Robbie Young into the hands of brother, Danny. Dan Gray departed in exactly the same fashion 14 balls later and Upskill was 5/110; still 26 runs behind. Ben Ronday (39) and Amitoj Sidhu (27) steered the Upskill ship home with an unbeaten 44 run partnership from 45 balls.
