Western Suburbs v Wynnum Manly
Men’s First Grade Round 13 - Two Day
21 & 28 January 2023 at Graceville Memorial Park
Taking on the top team at their home ground was always going to be a difficult task. Add to this a “stinker” of a day 2 with oppressively hot conditions and humidity and the task became even more difficult. However, Wynnum fought hard over both weekends and came within a whisker of pulling off a win.
Wests decision to bowl on Day One did not go as planned for the hosts with Brad Radford and Jordan Kingdon fighting hard against some fiery fast bowling from Blake Edwards and Tom Whitney to take Wynnum to lunch unscathed at 0/73 from 28 overs. The opening partnership reached 83 in the 36th over before Radford lofted Steve McGiffin to Luke Penn at mid-on and was out for 46. Kingdon’s stay at the wicket topped three hours before he mishit a pull shot off spinner Luke Penn and found Josh Del Simone at backward square leg. Wynnum 2/105 in the 46th over. Corey Hunter and Reuben Burger’s run-a-ball 36 run partnership included five boundaries, three of which came in a 14 run blitz by Hunter in the 48th over, but with the score on 141, Hunter slashed at a wide one from Darcy Murphy and was caught by Del Simone at backward point. An over later, Grayson Jones smacked a full toss to Sam Truloff at cover leaving Burger and Jed Wilson to negotiate an awkward 15 minutes to the Tea break; Wynnum 4/153.
After Tea, Burger and Wilson added 18 in just 14 balls before an attempted pull shot by Wilson off Whitney popped up to keeper Tom Pappalardo and was adjudged out. The next 16 overs belonged to Wynnum. Burger continued to accumulate runs while Jehan Daniel was his usual aggressive self. The 50 partnership came in the 71st over from 74 balls, Daniel contributing 39 of these. Burger brought up his 50 from 96 balls in the 73rd over and Daniel from 61 balls a couple of overs later. Then, with the partnership at 75 from 100 balls, Daniel attempted to hit McGiffin over long off but found the safe hands of Edwards; Wynnum 6/246 from 75 overs. Burger’s half-day innings finally came to a close in the 81st over on 71 from 118 balls when McGiffin took a return catch and his 3rd wicket of the day. The new ball was taken in the 82nd over as Josh Fraser joined Liam Guthrie. Not for the first time this season, the pair defied the bowling. Fraser, solid in defence, played the perfect support role in the 41 run partnership over the next 11 overs. Guthrie’s valuable 39 from 55 balls came to an end in the 92nd over of the day when tweaker Angus Tolhurst disturbed his stumps with the score on 308. Fraser and Steinhardt saw out the remaining few overs to reach 8/317 at the close.
Day Two:
Dropped on the second ball of the day, Steinhardt defied the bowling for another seven overs before McGiffin got an edge and Carlyon corrected his earlier error at slip. Fraser and Tom Eyley added a valuable 22 from 35 before Hunter called a halt at 9/355 just before drinks; Fraser finishing not out 33 from 87 balls.
A solitary wicket to Fraser was the only joy for Wynnum before lunch; Wests 1/52 at the break. After lunch, Pranav Susarla and Sam Truloff piled on the runs. The 50 partnership came from just 66 balls, before some tight bowling slowed the run rate. The result was a wicket to Steinhardt in the 27th over; Radford taking a catch to remove Susarla. Three minutes later, play was suspended due to lightning with the score on 2/99. There were ominous signs on the horizon, but thankfully the rain did not eventuate and play resumed 72 minutes later at 2.45pm.
The Tea break was deemed taken and given the umpires’ ability to extend play for an hour, no actual playing time was lost. Wynnum faced the prospect of a three and a quarter hour final session with 52.4 overs to bowl.
Truloff seemed intent on making the remaining runs as quickly as possible adding 16 off 14 balls after the resumption and bringing up his 50 from 72 balls. However, just two balls later, Jed Wilson was on hand to take a lofted drive off Steinhardt and Truloff was on his way back to the “pavilion”. McGiffin and Del Simone continued aggressively, taking 36 from the next 7 overs before Tom Eyley got an edge and Burger took a good catch to dismiss Del Simone at the end of the 38th over. With the new batsman Tolhurst struggling to get McGiffin on strike, the run rate slowed and eventually took its toll. Trying to force the pace, McGiffin became Eyley’s second victim when he was bowled in the 46th over. With 5 wickets remaining, still requiring 176 from just 33 overs, the message to the incoming Blake Edwards was to see it out. Edwards and Tolhurst frustrated the Wynnum bowlers for 14 overs before workhorse, Josh Fraser, came back into the attack. Tolhurst got an edge and was brilliantly caught at slip by Grayson Jones. Five balls later, Pappalardo edged Daniel to Burger who took a beauty down low and it was 7/221. About an hour remained in the day. Whitney and Edwards held out for about 36 minutes before Radford blasted through Whitney with 19 minutes to go in the day; 8/243.
A valiant effort by the Wynnum Manly lads, but it was not to be. Stumps called at 6:00pm with Wests 8/250.
