16 March 2013
3rd XI – HIGH 9/60 (30) (K. Pham 12, J. Norman 10) defeated by Kings 5/61 (S. Sufian 3/5 [3], K. Vyas 1/16 [5])
16 February 2013
3rd XI – HIGH 142 (58) (K. Dhamoon 28, K. Vyas 26, Y. Wong 16) drew with Newington 7/80 (35) (K.Vyas 3/11 [7], S. Nene 1/9 [6])
Something clicked. The team arrived at Marrickville Oval fresh and full of belief. It was a precinct to what was to be our most successful and amazing spell of bowling and fielding only to be cruelly cut short by rain.
A consistent spell of bowling from Khushaal and Michael saw a very aggressive Newington batting line up struggle for runs. The pressure and extreme precision bowling saw Khushaal take 3 wickets in his first spell through some good catching by S. Sethi, K. Dhamoon and S. Sufian. This, added with a wicket in Michael’s final over in his spell saw Newington 4 wickets down at the first break. A spectacular catch by Simon Luong, bowled by S. Nene and another solid catch by K. Pham of the bowling of K. Dhamoon saw Newington 6 down! Just as the rain started to fall heavily and what eventuated to be the last ball of the day, an amazing throw by Sameer saw us get a run out to put Newington 7/80 and assuring us of victory had the game continued especially with Newington players on the ground already telling us they “had given up hope”.
Unfortunately, luck went against us and the rain just wouldn’t stop cruelly snatching us of a victory. The boys should be extremely proud with their performance despite the result and should put us in good stead for next week’s match against Scots.
9 February 2013
3rd XI – HIGH 142 (58) (K. Dhamoon 28, K. Vyas 26, Y. Wong 16) vs. Newington 0/7 (2) (K.Vyas 0/1, M. Liu 0/6)
The first day saw us play our first game on turf for the season and our boys adjusted to the new conditions magnificently with one of our stronger batting performances this year. Kritman Dhamoon opened with Simon Luong and whilst this opening partnership did not gain a huge partnership, both showed the importance of opening the batting well. By lasting for almost a full session without losing a wicket, both batsmen were able to see off the new ball and made batting for our middle order much easier. Kritman capitalized on a good start before getting out for 28 of a soft dismissal. Yiutao came to the crease and played a very mature innings in partnership with Khushaal whose partnership saw High slowly increase their score. After another soft dismissal seeing Yiutao’s dismissal after a fine innings, Safat and Khushaal put together another strong partnership and with this allowed the team to bat far more aggressively in the final session with wickets in hand. Unfortunately, with more aggression, the wickets began to tumble but still saw High reach a competitive score of 142 by the end of the day. 2 overs left in the day, Newington were 0/7.
1 December 2012
3rd XI – Shore 313 (J. Norman 3/57, K. Vyas 2/55) defeated HIGH 140 (A. Joseph 41, S. Luong 31, K. Vyas 17)
24 November 2012
3rd XI – Shore 313 (J. Norman 3/57, K. Vyas 2/55) vs. HIGH 2/36 (A. Joseph 15*)
On a perfect day for a game of cricket, we fielded first with two of our key bowlers unavailable for the game. Khushaal opened up the bowling early and missed a caught and bowled opportunity losing sight of the ball. Luckily, Jay ensured this was not a costly error with a wicket in his first over. Eventually, Khushaal hit the top of middle stump to snare his first wicket of the day. This opening spell partnership between Jay and Khushaal was extremely consistent and kept us hopeful. However, some sloppy fielding and bowling saw us lose momentum through a large number of boundaries. George Farrugia, Sameer Nene and Safat Sufian recovered however and also bowled spells seeing a lot of swing and movement and were often at times unlucky not to get more wickets than they did with George and Safat finishing with a wicket each and Sameer bowling extremely economically and definitely deserved a wicket with his reverse swing bowling.
A sharp run out chance and a direct hit from Simon saw another wicket fall. Jay and Khushaal returned with the ball with Jay striking immediately in his first ball back with a perfect bouncer. Khushaal made up for his earlier fielding error with a spectacular caught and bowled catch with Mr. Fuller exclaiming it was the best he’d seen! We bowled out Shore for 313, much too high a total majorly thanks to sloppy errors in the middle session. Whilst we lost two early wickets in the batting, Anoj and Simon do look set and have gotten us off to a reasonably good start. Consistent batting next week should make for a solid contest.
17 November 2012
3rd XI – St Ignatius 5/401dec. (64) (K. Vyas 3/30 [11], M. Liu 1/54 [12]) defeated HIGH 149 (L. De Fonseka 32, S. Sethi 13)
10 November 2012
3rd XI – St Ignatius 5/401dec. (64) (K. Vyas 3/30 [11], M. Liu 1/54 [12]) vs. HIGH
3 November 2012
3rd XI – HIGH 7/135 (30) (K. Dhamoon 63, K. Vyas 22) defeated by Grammar 5/137 (27) (M. Liu 2/20, G. Farrugia 1/29)
27 October 2012
3rd XI – Kings 2/163 (30) (K. Vyas 1/14, M. Liu 1/30) defeated HIGH 9/122 (30) (J. Norman 50*, K. Dhamoon 26)
Winning the toss and choosing to bowl didn’t start off too badly with some economical starts from both Khushaal and Michael resulting in a wicket in the 8th over. Whilst for the most part the bowling was quite consistent, our fielding once again let us down which was extremely disappointing to see. Basic fielding errors turned 0s into 2s etc. which made the Kings total balloon to an extent it should never have reached. Dropped catches, both of which were simple also saw the batsmen settle in and allowed them the luxury of hitting out at the closing stages. Once again, the boys really need to find it in themselves to work on their fielding.
The batting standard however noticeably improved. Whilst we lost an early wicket, Khushaal and Kritman consolidated and held together the innings with a solid 44 run partnership before Khushaal lobbed a catch to deepish mid on. As a result of this consolidation, we could afford to lose wickets in a bid to go out and have a hit to come closer to the Kings total. It appeared that this aggressive style of batting suited Jay Norman who scored 50 not out which included 8 exquisite boundaries. By the 30th over we had lost 9 wickets with out batsmen simply trying to follow through with the saying ‘hit out or get out’. Our batting performance proved that with some consistent fielding, we can most certainly put up a competitive total and hopefully we can carry this form into our next game.
20 October 2012
3rd XI – Newington 5/137 (20) (G. Farrugia 2/17 [4], M. Liu 2/20 [4]) defeated HIGH 9/85 (20) (S. Vimalanathan 21)
A strong Newington batting outfit did try and capitalize on our loose bowling at the beginning of their innings. However, some disciplined and strategic bowling from George Farrugia and Michael Liu saw wickets falling at consecutive intervals. This level headed bowling is definitely something we want to continue into our next game. Whilst the fielding effort saw a small improvement from last week, we still dropped one crucial catch and some fielding errors seeing balls that should have had a maximum of one run coming of them being turned into twos and threes which made the Newington total rise immensely. However, Kritman Dhamoon showed some inspiring effort in the field with 3 top class catches as well as Sunchit Sethi whose enthusiasm and effort in the field did not go amiss. Hopefully some extra work at training will see a marked improvement in our fielding overall.
In the batting department we again struggled and like last week it was ill-discilplined batting and poor shot selection that saw the majority of our batsmen get out. Whilst there was some swing and movement, over confidence against the very slow bowling Newington outfit saw rash shots and poor thinking resulting in a big collapse in a game at our best we could have easily won. However, a mention must go to Sai whose aggressive batting style very much suited this format of the game.
Most of the boys are not suited to the shorter format of the game, however, this game will hopefully be a lesson on the importance of discipline all round in fielding, bowling and batting and it is when we find this rhythm we will definitely come out on top looking ahead this season.
13 October 2012
3rd XI – St. Joseph’s 4/141 (20) (Wickets: M. Liu 2, K. Dhamoon 1, S. Nene 1) defeated HIGH 8/81 (20) (K.Vyas 37, J. Norman 20)
After winning the toss and choosing to field, our season got off to a great start with a wicket on the first ball of the innings by Kritman Dhamoon. However, with most of the team still rusty having not played cricket for almost a year, our fielding let us down several times but will definitely improve with more practice. Some disciplined bowling from Michael Liu and Sameer Nene saw us gain some crucial breakthroughs to limit the Joeys side to 141 who at one stage looked as though would get 160+.
Whilst there were both positives and negatives to take away from our day in the field, our batting definitely let us down with some ill-disciplined shot selection seeing a huge collapse from our top order who will be looking to work on their mistakes before next week. However, a crucial partnership between Jay Norman and Khushaal Vyas saw a flurry of boundaries (11 fours and 1 six between them) between the two with Jay getting out for 20 and Khushaal powering on to reach 37 before skying a ball to deep mid off. Unfortunately, this was the only depth we saw in our batting line up with some very low scores resulting in a total we know with some practice could be heavily improved.
Overall, despite the result, there is a lot we can take away from this game and with some practice we are confident we can improve and win more games in the future.