CAS Cricket Vs St Aloysius’

Saturday saw round 2 of the CAS season with matches against St Aloysius’ College. It was a very even match up across the various age groups with St Aloysius’ just pipping us overall with six wins compared to our five. The undoubted highlights of the round were Trinity boys recording two separate hat-tricks! Lochlan Demark (10 Sc) in the 10As and Ashton Yee (8 Sc) in the 8As both managed this rare feat and I can’t remember ever having two players in the same round achieve this.

1st XI

After coming off a drawn result in the first round, Trinity’s young men of Cricket were hungry in search of their first win against a competitive Aloysius’ side. With the wicket looking no different to the Pacific Highway, Trinity lost the toss and Aloysius’ put themselves into bat on what was thought to be one of the flattest, hardest wickets we’d seen all season. Trinity’s young men took the field bracing for a potential slaughtering on a field that is no bigger than the QUADRANGLE itself, but what no one had taken into account was the opening bowling experience of Shivam Wadhera (11KE) who bowled some serious heat. Coming in at a dangerously high angle of release, the ball was swinging more than Mike Tyson in the third round and he ended up with 2/8 of 5 overs. James Moore (11 Ta) the First XI captain decided to give bowling a go and much to everyone’s surprise managed to take two wickets bowling right arm slow. The highlight of the bowling innings was Tom Bermingham (9Mu). After some solid swing bowling from yours truly, the ball found the outside edge and was heading to the ground fast but Tom at second slip threw his hand at it in a diving attempt and the ball stuck in his hand better than 3-day old chewing gum on a bench seat.

Trinity rolled Aloysius’ for 110 and were sent into bat before the lunch break. Now most people or batsmen would attempt to consolidate in this tricky 20-minute batting period where you can’t get many runs, but you can’t try and consolidate; all you can achieve is get out. Tom Bermingham and James Schroder aren’t normal batsmen though, and went out there with runs in mind, scoring 18 off the first over and getting Trinity into a commanding lead out the front. After the break James Moore (11TA) was into bat at 3 after Bermingham was dismissed on 38, Moore went out and once again had nothing but runs on his mind. Anything short was dispatched to the boundary at pace. Copping the brute end of this hitting unfortunately was a car passing that was hit by one of James’ bombs that was muscled over the fence and into what one could only imagine was an innocent Toyota Prius trying to get home that was interrupted by James’ big hitting. Trinity saw out the innings with James ending up with 32 and the young men chasing the small total of 110 in a mere 17 overs.

Trinity took the first win of the season well and are looking forward to being back at home against Waverley next week

Sam Newton
1st XI all-rounder

10A

Trinity lost the toss and were asked to field, and the young men of the 10As experienced playing on Number 1 oval for the first time. The day started well with Thomas Huynh (10Ke) continuing his rich vein of form, taking a wicket with just his third ball of the day. Jayden Skuse (10Ar) kept things tight, before Lochlan Demark (10Sc) took over the game, taking 4/2 off his three overs before, including a hat-trick! Coming out from the drinks break Dhruv Bharadwaj (10St) 1/12 from 4 overs & Andrew Stone (10Ho) 2/15 from 3.5 overs made light work of the St. Aloysius’ tail, dismissing the visitors for 53 in the 24th over.

Led by Will Vaughan (10Sc) and captain Kyron Thapa (10We), both who top scored with 13, Trinity quickly set about running down the St. Aloysius’ total, passing their total in the 13th over.

It was a great win for the young Trinitarians, and we look forward to the challenge posed by Waverley this weekend.

10B/9B

Trinity turned up to TGS No.3 keen to play their first home game of the season. After suffering a defeat at the hands of Barker the previous week , Trinity had spent time reflecting on areas to improve and were ready to bring their A game against St. Aloysius. It was a drizzly morning and there was a melancholy vibe as we waited to start the game, but Trinity’s attitude was anything but.

Trinity won the toss and elected to bat, hoping to get some runs on the board on a seemingly flat deck at Summer Hill. Despite an early wicket, skipper Rohit Dixit (10Hi) and Oliver Pearson (10Sc) seemed to be building some good momentum, targeting the short square boundaries at TGS No.3. This strength then turned into our weakness as both in-batters fell playing across-the-line, St. Aloysius’ being given assistance by some demons in the wicket. This brought Cooper Shepherd (10Hi) and Alexander Chu (10Sc) to the crease with the game plan to play straight, construct a partnership and build a platform for our lower order. These two batters combined for an epic 44 run stand which set up the game for Trinity, which featured some great power-hitting, seeing Cooper finish on 25. Unfortunately, the middle and lower order were undone by a clinical bowling performance by the St. Aloysius’ opening bowler, who bowled full, fast and straight. This saw Trinity finish on 74 all out. Special mention must go to the St. Aloysius’ team who displayed great sportsmanship, in giving some of our less-experienced players a fairer shot at doing well and having fun.

Trinity knew they had enough runs, but they also knew they would have to match and exceed the skill of the St Aloysius’ bowling attack. Our opening bowlers bowled exceptionally well, with more balls passing by the stumps and beating the outside edge of the bat than hitting the bat and taking a few wickets with them. With this pressure built up, it was up to the rest of the team to follow up and execute what we had been training for, attacking the stumps with our bowling. St Aloysius’ had built a bit of a partnership but it was mystery-spinner Priyann Thanujan (9We), who bowled with great accuracy and skill, who ripped the heart out of the Aloysius’ batting line-up spinning his web, and taking them with him. Priyann finished with figures of 3/10 of 5 overs, which was thanks to a spectacular, one-handed, diving catch from Alex Chu, who injured himself in the process. Down to ten fielders, with ten runs left to play with and two wickets to get, the ball was thrown to Dimitri Giannakopolous (9 Sc). Dimitri bowled with great skill, executing his 145kph Patrick Cummins-esque in-swinging yorkers to take the final two wickets and get the team over the line.

The 9B/10Bs played to their strengths and executed their skills brilliantly and I could not be prouder of the way they played. I look forward to taking this form and momentum into the rest of the season.

Jordan Gupta | 9B/10Bs Coach

8A

In cloudy, drizzling conditions, St Aloysius’ won the toss and elected to bat. Trinity started with some accurate bowling from Jaden Tsang (8We) but it was Ashton Yee (8Ta) who starred with the ball taking a hat-trick to finish with figures of 4/21 off 6 overs. St Aloysius’ finished with a gettable total on a small ground of 8/137 off their allotted 32 overs.

Kingston Huang (8Du) opened the batting and made a well-compiled 26 runs and James Henry (8Ta) scored a quick 16 runs late in Trinity’s innings. The 8As were eventually bowled out in the 28th over for 92 runs.

This was a reasonable performance from the 8As, but most players in the team will need to continue to train hard to improve their batting.

Don Kesby
8A Coach

8B

The 8Bs travelled to Hammond Park for their first full game of the season, facing off against St. Aloysius’. Having won the toss and electing to bowl, the boys delivered with an excellent performance in the field. Seven bowlers each picked up a wicket, with special mention to Milo Saunders (8Ar) and Aakash Viswanathan (8Ta), who both bowled economically to finish with 1/8 and 1/7 respectively. Giacomo Duarte (8Sc) also struck a huge blow with a brilliant runout, although his effort was topped by Jordan Fudeh (8Yo), whose twisting palm-off onto the stumps was one of the highlights of the match. All together Trinity restricted Aloysius’ to just 109 off their 32 overs. Trinity slipped to 3/9 early in our innings, but this brought Nicholas Streeton (8St) and Hamish Turner (8Ta) together at the crease. The pair combined for a superb unbeaten 105 run partnership to steer Trinity to victory in under 20 overs. Nick blasted nine boundaries, including a monster six over midwicket, en route to 42 not out, whilst Hamish struck two sixes in his 30 not out, including the matchwinner with a classy shot over square leg. A fantastic all-round performance from all the boys.

Anton Demark
8B Coach

7A

The 7A Cricket team started their Middle School journey to Barker College two Saturdays ago where Trinity bowled first and in the first over, Thomas Wood (7WJ) took a wicket following an Aaron Patel (7Ta) catch at point. When the second over was completed, rain came and the match was washed out. Fast forward to last Saturday and Trinity returned home to host St Aloysius’. Trinity bowled first again and Thomas Wood repeated the process of taking a wicket in his first over. Trinity then proceeded to have the opposition in all trouble at 4-14 with two wickets from left arm quick Finn Byrne (7Mu) and a well constructed run out. Some very tight bowling from leg spinner Thomas Blackman (7Du) led to his two wickets. Some short bowling by the team though, allowed the opposition to get their score to 6-112 from their 32 overs. This score was chased three wickets down by Trinity with Thomas Wood scoring 61 not out in a man of the match performance.

Luke Gray
7A Coach

Thank you to all the parents who got their sons to arrive on or before the designated meeting time for their game last week. This is something that we are trying to instill into the boys as a measure of respect for their team-mates and being prepared as best as possible.

Let’s hope that the weather does not ruin our chances of a full round against Waverley this weekend. Best of luck to all teams.