2nd Grade Report
Epping v Burwood @ Epping Oval Epping (0/15) trail Burwood (6/311 dec) by 296 runs.
Coming
into this round against one of the competition front-runners, Burwood,
the Pingers were already out of contention for the semis. Skipper Mark
Bruce, obviously not a believer in the axiom "the captain always goes
down with the ship", had pulled with eject lever and jettisoned up to
First Grade, leaving the Gasm to assume the role of his new moniker,
Captain Morgan. Morgs first duty as skipper, the toss, was failed with
aplomb, and we were asked to bowl on a flat looking Epping Oval track.
And so it proved, with the ball coming on nicely to the bat
allowing them to score four an over easily, despite our seamers bowling
tidily. Their score had reached 41 when McFadden, having been hit for
four the previous two balls, bowled a well disguised slower ball,
hitting the batsman on the toe and right in front. This brought in the
skipper, who seemed to think that Mitch's flighted offerings were an
invitation to swing lustily. Eventually one of those lusty swings led
to a top edge that sent the ball straight up into the air. As the ball
neared it's apex, keeper Coxy's bewildered call of "where is it?" meant
Scollay had to step forward from slip and take the catch. Not long
after, their number four pulled Horrocks straight to McFadden at short
midwicket where he held a sharp catch. Ben quickly gave credit to Ricky
Ponting's fielding tips he saw on TV of "watching the batsman" instead
of the ball as it was delivered. Morgs, through some tight bowling, got
the other opener to hole out to Chili at cover, and when Dinners got
the number six to edge one into Tom Ware's buckets at gully, right on
the stroke of tea, Epping felt on top going into the break with them on
5/145.
After tea, it was a completely different story, with the batsmen
immediately in control, especially their number seven. As we later
found out in the week, it turns out he's scored something like 9000
runs for Western Suburbs first grade, and in his four digs this season,
coming in at number seven, he has scored 77, 64*, 90 and 85 for an
average of 105. What a bandit! He ticked the score over at about six an
hour without too much fuss, while his partner batted well at the other
end, although offered up a stumping chance and two out field chances
that we failed to take.
It didn't matter who bowled really, with both
seamers and spinners copping a pounding, which eventually led to even
Scollay rolling the arm over. Eventually, the number five brought up
his century off a Dinners overthrow, which led the first grade burglar
to start bombing the pavilion, knocking out some roof tiles, before
holing out on the boundary. With that catch, they declared at 6/311.
Scollay and Ware opened the batting, and faced 13 overs, and almost
as many bowling changes, to finish the day without alarm at 0/15. There
is long chase in store this week, but it's a flat pitch and a fast
outfield.
Pennant Hills 278 (80 overs) defeated Epping 183 (33 overs)
Morgan (1-24 off 15 and 23) v Stubbings (3-6 and a Duck)
Season 09/10 was on the line for the boys from second grade following a
number of harrowing losses in the most recent rounds. After being
humbled by our neighbour to the east in Round 10, Epping travelled to
Pennant Hills for the much anticipated clash between the Gasm (and
N.Wilson) v The Pumas.
Epping won the toss and sent Penno in to bat with the aim of using the
early morning start to our advantage. After twenty overs the initial
breakthrough finally came after some very tight bowling from the Epping
seamers. With the score at 41 the Gasm struck the first blow trapping
the opener in front. The slow scoring continued for most part of the
day with wickets hard to come by. The match saw the return to second
grade of the Club President and in his third over Coat put the opposing
first drop out of his misery with a wily off cutter that slipped
between bat and pad to disrupt the timber.
Following a close run out chance the remaining opening batsman
sustained a back injury that resulted in a runner being required and
him resembling an arthritic retiree. Despite being unable to move
freely the batsman still found a liking to Coat's offerings,
dispatching 3 long bombs over deep mid-wicket. After realising Coat was
being taken out of the attack the batsman decided enough was enough and
he retired hurt.
The Gasm bowled a great spell of fourteen overs with the batsman
finding it very difficult to score off him and also placing a high
value on their wicket.
The going was slow and it became evident that the Pennant Hills game
plan was to bat for a long period leaving a difficult chase to Epping.
As wickets were hard to come by Epping was unable to disrupt the
Pumas aspirations. After 50 overs the score was 2-134, after 60 overs
4-181, 70 overs 5-213. It was only the final ten overs of the Pennant
Hills innings that finally saw the bat being thrown with 80 runs coming
in quick time.
Throughout this the Epping bowlers toiled away with good returns from
Chilli with 2-45 off 13, Bryan McFadden taking 0-36 off 13. Sparkles
continued to beat the batsman with flight and even some considerable
turn, taking 2 wickets and creating an amazing outfield catch being
taken one handed by Coat. Patty bowled without luck and was very
difficult to score off finishing with 1-37 off 12.
Pennant Hills were finally bowled out for 278 in the 80th over.
Epping required a run rate of 7 per over to reach the target off 40
overs and early on the signs were looking good with Scollay in good
touch and finding the gaps. Scollops played over a straight one on
31, in the 8th over with the score on 44. When the skipper was
dismissed caught on the boundary for 31 also the Bulls were 2 for 93 in
the 17th over. With Biff finding the boundary on a regular basis and
plenty of batting to come the Bulls were in a position to challenge the
imposing total.
This all changed with the regular fall of wickets in
between the odd maximum and despite having the fire power to take stock
and assess the situation the middle order came and went without much
fanfare. Biff made a good 38 and contributions from Coat (28) and Morgs
(23) helped raise a final total of 183 off 33 overs.
Despite being given a difficult task the Bulls batting was not able to
stick together for long enough periods to put any significant pressure
on the bowling side.
So we head to Burwood looking for an improved performance with the bat
and to take some Club Championship points out of the rest of the season.
09/10 2nd Grade Reports
08/09 2nd Grade Reports
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