3rd Grade Report
Round 12 Vs Burwood @ St Luke's Oval
Week 2
Epping 151 and 4 for 54
Burwood 8 for 204 Boorer 4 for 50 Fry 3 for 38
The 2nd day started with an hour delay due to a very wet outfield after heavy overnight rain. Play got underway with water spilling around our feet, on the soaked square.
With the wicket a bit damp we fancied our chances of winning the match and taking the six points needed to make sure of a finals place. Fry got one past their number 5, in the 5th over of the day to reduce the score to 4 for 36. Liv Picked up the opener in the 8th over of the day and then Boorer coming on for the injured Fry claimed the 6th wicket at 48. At this point we were odds on for a comfortable win.
Unfortunately it was not to be. With the hosts needing 104 with only 4 wickets left on a difficult wicket and slow outfield you would expect the fielding side to win 9 out of 10.
We had plenty of chances a stumping was missed at 55 and 4 further catches went to ground between 55 and 120. All were very catchable. We did get a break with the score at 103.
Burwood battled hard and they wore us down and let’s give them some credit as their number 7, 8 and 9 did fantastically well to pull off the match.
I do not think the bowlers could have done much more, we all bowled to the fields that we set and with a bit more luck the game would have come home! I believe we gave it everything we had.
The 3rds have been fighters all season and will continue with a win next round and the team will be rewarded with a finals birth.
Rosser
Day 1
Epping 151 (K Dhillon 49)
Burwood 3/33 (A Fry 2/17, M Boorer 1/12)
Arriving at Ron Routley on a sunny, mildly humid day and being asked the opinion by skip Rosser to bat or bowl, an overwhelming majority (9:2, only Rosser & Stammers wanted to bowl) expressed their interest in giving our top 6 a run on the seemingly hard, crusty deck. Maybe some of the top six (myself included) should learn the art/science of reading cricket pitches these days…
With newly promoted keeper/opening bat, Stammers partnered Krilla to face the music and hopefully deny the briars early inroads into our middle order. Deny they tried until Krilla (7) was castled with the score on 12, allowing myself to enter the fray. From just about the first ball I found that the pitch wasn’t anywhere near as hard and fast as most thought and there was plenty of shape from the briars bowlers to keep us honest. Driving, like skinny-dipping during a freak-snow storm, was a complete no-no.
Stammers (10) was soon sent on his way at 2/26 so in walked El Presidente. With a positive mindset and a lucky chance at 2nd slip, Coat decided to nail anything he deemed a bad ball, until he miscued one to midwicket… Then came KD (of the darker, more aggressive variety). Now, if anyone knew KD, you would know that often runs start flowing soon after he arrives at the crease. This is exactly what happened. 1st ball: over square leg for four. 2nd ball: defended to mid-on. 3rd ball: over midwicket for four. 8 off 3 balls. Not a bad start.
I was soon out after being bogged down for 20-odd overs and struggling to get anything off the square. A Govender (Ash) came and went after a dubious and controversial “bump ball” incident, where he was sure he bumped the ball into the ground but the umpire thought otherwise. Matt Davoren (nickname unknown to writer) came and went in two balls, and so at 6/75 some stodgy batting and a little luck was needed.
And so it came, with Skip Rosser and KD oh-so-slowly adding to the total with some well-muscled shots and even more brick-wall defence to give Epping a chance to get a defendable total on the slowest pitch I, personally, have ever played on. A 58-run partnership then ensued with Rosser adding just 13 but doing a brilliant job in holding up an end while hustling through the wickets to steal extra ones and twos here and there. KD was the star of the batting line-up by far with 49 and a little help from the lower order, helping us to reach 151, which many of us believe to be a good, defendable total on that slow, low turner.
BUT…to defend that total we needed to come out all-guns-blazing for the final session, a mere 19 overs, and snare at least two, if not four wickets to pile on the pressure for next week.
A Fry picked up the opener with a carbon-copy of Waqar Younis and his toe-crushing yorker to send him off LBW (we later found out he had to go to hospital!). Frysie then picked up their number 3 caught by Krillas at point to end the day with 2/17 off 6. He could have had 3 had the other opening bat not picked out the shortest player on the team (myself and proud of it) and hit it just over my 5ft 8inch reach. Coat then picked up their number four LBW after walking across his stumps.
At 3/33 one would think Burwood would need to guts it out to get up on a slow, low, turning deck (if it IS still like that next week), but Epping are definitely in the ascendancy in this match and we are looking to at least claim the 6 points to give ourselves an extra chance in the semi-finals.
Go the mighty BULLS!!
Danger
09/10 3rd Grade Reports
08/09 3rd Grade Reports
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