By Randall Woodley
QUOTE OF THE WEEK- “Cricket is a team game. If you want fame for yourself, go and play an individual game like golf or tennis. But there is no better feeling than winning as part of a team.” Guatam Gambhir, Indian Test cricketer.
SEASON’S FIXTURES
Cricket is alive and well on the Sunshine Coast with over 50 teams taking the field next Saturday 2 October on the first full day of fixture matches. The association draw will have seven senior grades playing on something like 25 cricket pitches up and down the district. As well, the junior cricket matches will begin on Saturday morning, 9 October.
The Tewantin-Noosa Thunder Cricket Club (TNT) will have four senior teams playing again this season in first, second, fourth and sixth grades. Last season, all four teams reached the finals but only Fifth Grade managed to bring home a trophy. The club is certainly planning to improve on these results by the end of this season.
MATCHES LAST SATURDAY
The Thunder First Graders made it six from six last Saturday with T20 wins over the Caboolture Snakes in the afternoon and Glasshouse Rangers under lights at Read Park to put them in top spot on the ladder. Caboolture have four of the top 10 batsmen in the comp and elected to bat first, so the home side needed to be on their game. They certainly did that with Tom Stewart and Scott Aufderheide getting TNT off to a great start having Caboolture 2-23 off the first four overs which became 4-28 off six with Jarrod Officer and Dom Taylor each picking up a wicket at the back of the powerplay. Caboolture could only manage 7 for 101 from their 20 overs with all of the Thunder bowlers contributing well.
TNT started solidly with Chris Wright (29 off 27) but losing three wickets in the first seven overs saw the boys having to consolidate and protect their wickets but at the same time keep scoring runs at five-plus an over. Lewis Waugh (27 from 36) and Andrew Kratzmann (19 off 27) put together a safe, well- constructed partnership that helped the team achieve the target with two overs to go for the loss of five wickets.
With the lights on, the night match against Glasshouse was very similar to the earlier game. This time Thunder batted first with Wright again getting the team off to a great start (29 off 27) before they found themselves in trouble at 3-36. From there it became a Waugh (65 off 56) and Kratzmann (43 off 37) master class in attacking batting. The innings finished on 6 for 149 with many of the team’s players yet to have a bat after six matches. They will get their turn when the format changes to 50 overs a side next Saturday.
The highlights of the day were Wrighty’s aggressive opening batting and veteran Kratzmann (43 and 19) and Lewis Waugh’s (27 and 65) middle order work. The Thunder’s batting line-up looks so much more solid this season with the inclusion of Waugh near the top.
With Ben Laughlin back in for the second game, TNT’s attack was significantly strengthened. Tom Stewart came through early, bowling the Ranger’s opener to cap a great day with the ball – again. A tight powerplay turned into a ripper with Dom Taylor picking up two wickets in three balls to finish. Glasshouse fell to 6 for 50 with the game effectively over before they scraped home to be 9 for 104.
Dom Taylor was the pick of the bowlers with 4-21 to go with his 2-9 in the afternoon. Captain Jake Dennien finished the night with 2 for 15, just in time for the team to watch the AFL grand final in the clubhouse.
NEXT SATURDAY’S MATCHES
All teams will be playing one day matches for the next month, either 50 overs for first grade or 40 overs for other grades. Next Saturday, First Grade travel to Gympie, second grade are at home at Read Park against Palmwoods, fourth grade play Palmwoods at their ground and sixth grade take on USC at Dale Officer Oval. The fixture draw has made it possible that a match (either first or second grade) will be played at Read Park every Saturday and also fourth and sixths will alternate each Saturday at Dale Officer Oval.
