The top four Ghosts grade teams all lost the toss and found themselves in the field when Campbelltown Camden played Parramatta in day one of Round 7 matches over the weekend, reports Jason Ellsmore.
Ghosts fifth grade, the only ones to win the toss, batted on Raby 3 and struggled to be all out just after tea.
On Raby # 1 the first grade bowlers performed well to dismiss Parramatta for 238.
Luke Webb finished with figures of 3/27 from 14 overs in tidying up the Parramatta innings after Scott Coyte (2/47), Josh Dunning (1/28) and Tom Rogers (2/28) had applied the pressure at the top of the innings.
The Ghosts spinners also did their job maintaining the pressure with Hameed Kherkhah rewarded with figures of 2/46. The Ghosts bats immediately asserted their authority in the afternoon session but lost two wickets in the process.
The Ghosts are 2/85 in reply, with skipper Josh Clarke (32 not out) and night watchman Luke Webb (0 not out) to resume the chase next Saturday.
Both Damien Mortimer (18) and Scott Coyte (32) have been dismissed.
The Ghosts continue batting next week without star batsman Ryan Gibson, who is in New Zealand with the Sydney Thunder Squad.
While the Ghosts were in the field at Raby, Ryan Gibson starred for Sydney Thunder in their second match against Canterbury in NZ.
Thunder won the match on the back of Gibson’s innings of 74 not out off 56 balls. Ryan opened the innings and carried his bat in Thunder’s winning total of 1/173.
♦ The Ghosts second grade team dismissed Parramatta for 250 on the back of some good bowling by Faisal Nasim, who took 4/35 on the Old Kings ground.
His captain Dan Constable was rewarded with 3/60 from 25 overs and Jack Bray took 2/64 in support. However the Ghosts are in a spot of trouble at 3/22 in reply.
♦ Third Grade at Raby are in a favourable position to take the points next Saturday when they resume on 1/78 chasing Parramatta’s 192.
Chaitnya Sharma is undefeated on 38 and will be looking to see the Ghosts home on the small Raby # 2 Ground. Earlier in the day the Ghosts bowlers performed well as a team. Lleyton Wallace (3/40), Aaron Viles (2/15) and Andrew O’Halloran (2/33) were successful for the home team.
♦ Luke Miner completely destroyed the Parramatta fourth grade batting order, taking 6/35 on Merrylands Oval. Parramatta finished with 159 and had difficulty defending it in the afternoon.
The Ghosts bats were unlucky not to get the points on the first day finishing 12 runs short of victory on 3/148. Ethan Gillion will resume his innings on 69 not out next Saturday. Vincent Hreszczuk scored 50 opening the bat for the Ghosts.
♦ Without Cameron Binskin the Ghosts fifth grade total of 10/171 would have been quite dismal. Binskin scored a wonderful 123 runs on Raby 3 giving his team a chance next week.
The game sits in a precarious position with Parramatta 4/108 in reply. A couple of early wickets next Saturday could make this an interesting game.
