Trans-Tasman Quadrangular Festival 2016 – Shore School Sydney
Match 1 v Canberra Grammar School - Tuesday, 19 and Wednesday, 20 January
Canberra Grammar School (CGS) won the toss and batted. The new look King’s attack of Hayden Dickson and William Boyden went in search of early wickets. Dickson bowled a testing opening spell when he brought Gray Hardy into play, taking a sharp catch in the slips to get rid of the opening batsman. CGS began to consolidate with the second wicket pair until first-change George Cory-Wright swung one away to snaffle the second at 22 for 2. Wickets fell regularly as King’s fielded well with most of the bowlers being tidy in this first match of the season. In 45 overs CGS were dismissed for 106 runs with Campbell Mabin picking up 3 wickets, one being that of the CGS top scorer who was deceived and bowled for a valuable 62 runs. Sam Wilson deserves special praise for his superb performance as a wicket-keeper.
The Hardy boys (Gray and Fraser) strode out to open King’s innings with the younger brother looking to pounce on anything slightly loose. They put on 22 before Fraser departed for an entertaining 13 runs. Tyler Jerram went in at first drop and together with the skipper Hardy piled on a century partnership at more than 5 runs per over with Jerram being especially flamboyant scoring 64 of 58 balls. Sam Wilson looked good and was bemused to be given out caught behind. Nelu De Silva came in at 5 and was joined by Marcus Gerbich-Pais at the departure of Gray Hardy for a mature, gritty, hard-earned 59 runs. Gray looked set for a big score and was visibly irate with himself for throwing away his wicket. Marcus and Nelu increased the lead for no further loss, allowing themselves to resume on Day Two.
The lead grew to a handy proportion on first session of the second day – De Silva and Gerbich-Pais bringing up 200 with the former dismissed for a breezy 32. Dickson weighed in at the end of the innings and at his dismissal King’s declared on 213 for 7 - a significant lead of 107 runs with plenty of time to push for an outright win.
A changed batting order saw CGS lose wickets regularly and they were beginning to script an innings loss. Hari Kukreja, a newcomer to this level of cricket, bowled enterprising spells and finished the day with 4 wickets whilst Mabin and Dickson picked up 2 each. Cory-Wright, another of the impressive debutants in this match, claimed one scalp to go with his two in the first innings. CGS were all out for 129 in 51 overs, requiring King’s to score 24 runs for a 10 wicket victory, which was achieved by De Silva and Hardy with the former’s 14 off 7 balls being especially entertaining.
1st Innings
Mabin 3-23, Dickson 2-5, Cory-Wright 2-25, Kukreja 1-12, De Silva 1-6
F Hardy 13, G Hardy 59, T Jerram 64, S Wilson 4, N De Silva 32, M Gerbich-Pais 22, H Dickson 8
2nd Innings
Dickson 2-23, Cory-Wright 1-20, Kukreja 4-26, Mabin 2-27
De Silva 14 not out, G Hardy 3 not out
King’s win by 10 wickets
Match 2 v Christ’s College - Thursday, 21 January
The one-day match was rescheduled due to expected bad weather on Friday and saw King’s batting in spite of losing the toss. King’s got off to a decent start with De Silva having a go at anything he could swing at and Gray Hardy picking singles easily to rotate the strike. The loss of De Silva at 29 for 1 led to a minor stutter as Sam Wilson and Tyler Jerram followed soon after with King’s 45 for 3 in the 13th over and plenty of batting to come. A 62 run partnership between Gray and Fraser Hardy took King’s to triple figures until Fraser departed for another exciting innings with the score on 107 for 4 in the 27th over.
Gerbich-Pais walked off without troubling the scorers but when Gray Hardy holed out unnecessarily for the second time in three days, once again after a significant score, it seemed that the 200 target which was once easily gettable now became a tough challenge. Dickson and Cory-Wright hung around a bit but certainly not long enough and when they departed at 169 for 8 in the 42nd over, it looked like King’s would commit the unforgivable and not use up their 50 overs. The remaining batsmen did just that and innings folded with the score on 178 in the 45th over, 31 balls unused. This was a woeful second half of their innings and it is hoped that such wastefulness does not reappear in the competition matches.
Christ's College began their chase of King’s below par score at a blistering pace and useful partnerships with opening bat Bird saw them well above the RRR throughout their innings. After a profligate opening spell Kukreja and Cory-Wright reigned the batsmen in but the pressure was released once again and Christ's College coasted to victory amidst a background of thunder and lightning, with 5 overs to spare. Mabin was threatning at the end but had to settle for two wickets as he had run out of overs, whilst causing plenty of problems for the lower order.
De Silva 9, G Hardy 58, S Wilson 2, T Jerram 2, F Hardy 25, Dickson 22, Cory-Wright 11, Mabin 4, Kukreja 2, Boyden 1
Dickson 1-38, Kukreja 2-29, Cory-Wright 2-26, Mabin 2-38
King’s lose by 2 wickets
Match 3 v Shore School - Saturday, 23 and Sunday, 24 January
In this benchmark encounter of the Quad, King’s won the toss and chose to bat. Shore have arguably the best bowling attack in this tournament and the King’s batsmen had a big test to endure. Gray Hardy was dismissed in the 3rd over with 8 runs on the board. Thorn Parkes, who arrived the previous day from doing duty in the regional tournament in Christchurch, joined Nelu De Silva and together this pair began to consolidate, ride their luck and build a strong partnership. De Silva lost his wicket at 61/2 and the next four batsmen were all sent packing before they got going.
King’s was in an uncomfortable position of 91/6, but Parkes was still in and determined to grind it out. Hayden Dickson joined Parkes and started rebuilding positively. In spite of the decimated middle-order, Dickson was unfazed and made batting look easy before he was run-out going for a poorly judged second - 126 for 7. Parkes was marching on towards a century but needed support at the other end so in came George Cory-Wright who understood the crisis at hand. George took 6 balls to get his first run and played out another 15 dot balls whilst Parkes was slowing accumulating at the other end and getting closer and closer to a huge milestone. Eventually this pair compiled a 93 run partnership before Parkes was dismissed for a glorious 124 (244 balls). His innings showed guts, determination and a classy array of strokes. George then picked up the pace with the last pair for company and finished unbeaten on 37 (96 balls), also an innings of brave determination and wonderful maturity.
Shore, who were victors over King’s in two previous Quad encounters, lost one wicket by the end of the day’s play, in pursuit of the King’s total of 241. On Day Two, Shore was looking comfortable with a 53 run 2nd wicket partnership before skipper William St John struck for the second time in the innings. There were some worrying partnerships and King’s allowed Shore to get comfortable too often, as the attack began to weaken due to injury and fatigue, but the energetic toil of young pacemen Hari Kukreja and Cory-Wright ensured that King’s remained interested in getting rid of the opposing batsmen. Boyden picked up his first wicket of the tournament and St John broke the dangerous 10th wicket partnership that was threatening to overhaul the King’s total to have Shore all out for 213 (28 runs adrift). A long awaited victory over Shore!
De Silva 24, T Parkes 124, S Wilson 1, W St John 1, F Hardy 3, H Dickson 17, Cory-Wright 37 not out,
C Mabin 4, H Kukreja 2
W St John 4-40, W Boyden 1-41, H Kukreja 2-25, G Cory-Wright 2-31
King’s win on 1st innings
T15
In a hastily arranged T15 match due to the amount of time left in the day, King’s lost by one run to Shore. Kings, batting first, put on 97 runs (De Silva 20, Kukreja 25, Parkes 18, F Hardy 15) but the more experienced Shore outfit snuck home on the last ball of the match (Boyden, Mabin and Parkes took 2 wickets each).
