Wynnum Manly v Sandgate-Redcliffe
Taverners Qld U17 Round 1
10 September 2023 at Bill Albury Oval
It started out as a beautiful spring day, but once the breeze started it became quite chilly at Bill Albury Oval on Sunday. It was the opening round of the Taverners (U17) season. Wynnum skipper Harley Malpass won the toss and decided to bat first.
Harry Gulliver and Andy Corrie struggled for a little control early, but still managed to dismiss the Wynnum top order inside the first three overs; Gulliver’s second wicket a brilliant diving catch to keeper Flynn Zahra. Harley Malpass and Hayden Hamilton resisted briefly before Hamilton was the victim of another screamer; this time by Angus McLean at gully in Karmichael Dee’s first over. Malpass and Finn Thallon then dug in; guiding Wynnum to 4/56 at Drinks (18 overs) and adding 44 from 86 balls, before disaster struck again in the 22nd over. Going back to one from the last ball of Lakshdeep Singh’s second over, Malpass trod on his stumps. It was a superb display of sportsmanship by Harley to acknowledge his own dismissal despite umpires and opposition players not seeing what had happened. It was 6/68 a couple of overs later when Singh claimed a second wicket trapping Finn Thallon in front. Someone needed to step up for Wynnum. Nick Bragger and Noah Maguire rose to the challenge. The pair played cautiously early reaching a 50 partnership off 111 balls. The partnership then accelerated as Bragger brought up 50 with two sixes in the 47th over to take Wynnum past the 150 mark. Bragger was finally out bowled in the last over with the partnership on 99 from 153 balls. Maguire brought up his own 50 from the second last ball; guiding Wynnum to an unlikely 7/174 after being just 6/107 at the 40 over mark. Lakshdeep Singh was the pick of the bowlers with 2/19 in his 10 over spell.
A strong opening power play of 41 (10 overs) between Mitch Graham and Damon Bass laid a solid platform for Sandgate in the chase and even when Will Neubecker snuck one through to disturb Graham’s stumps a couple of balls later, Sandgate remained unphased. Bass and Steven Hogan guided Sandgate to 1/69 at drinks (19 overs) and on to a partnership of 55 from 102 balls before Bass was out to a Connor Rudman C&B in the 28th. Zac Joyce snuck one through Andy Corrie three overs later and Henry Patrick edged one to Noah Maguire to give Neubecker a second in the 39th, but throughout Hogan remained the Sandgate rock. Hogan’s 50 came off 82 balls before he accelerated to be 78 from 97 when the target was overhauled in the 44th over. Neubecker finished with 2/31 from 6.5 and Zac Joyce’s 1/16 from 10 overs was a notable spell.
