Taronga GW5 v Hornsby at Pidding Park, Ryde

Hottest day of the season so far and not the best day to be short of players in the game against Hornsby at Pidding Park on Saturday.

Plan A was to win the toss and bowl first to avoid fielding later in the day with 9 nine players with Shero having to leave early (date night and an automatic fine).  We lost the toss and were asked to bat. Aaarrgh - Plan A out the window .  Plan B was to put on a big score and hope scoreboard pressure would help us to victory.  We got off to a quick start, with Sharpy and Big Show putting on 43 for the first wicket in 5 overs before the Show fell for 16 – all boundaries.   AB joined Sharpy and the runs continued to flow in the heat.  At drinks we were in a good position at about 1-105, Sharpy having passed 50 for the third time this season.  The bowling was pretty friendly, and we continued to score at a decent rate, reaching 175 before AB was out for 56.  Yogesh then played a cameo 17 off about 6 balls, and Sharpy, after reaching his second ton of the season, smashed 30odd off the last 3 overs to leave us 4-234 off the 35 overs (Sharpy 135no) at the end.  A decent score though we were likely to need every one of those runs.

We started well, Shero (1-22) removing their opener for a duck but then in between the showers Hornsby progressed fairly comfortably to 1-64, before Romo took the first of his 3 catches on the boundary.  AB (2-28) and Raj (2-33) kept it tight but it was always a struggle with 9 fielders – especially so when Dhruv was bowling – as it meant our two youngest fielders (Dhruv 18 & Dylan 19) were bowler and wicket keeper and out in the field 5 of the other 7 were well over 50 ….. It wasn’t pleasant !   The game was in the balance and we decided that the best tactic was to take the pace off the ball and let them work for their runs.  Sharpy (1-42), now considered an allrounder with his gentle (very gentle) offies, was brought on to slow things down and Dhruv shifted to bowling spin.  The plan worked, Dhruv bowling especially well taking 4-39 (including a sharp stumping from Dylan to remove their captain).  Hornsby finished on 217 and we’d won by 17 runs.

So 5 matches down, 3 wins and 2 losses sees us sitting second in the table.