Campbelltown Camden Ghosts first grade will need to take eight Parramatta wickets in a hurry this Saturday to defeat the home side in Round 6 of the Sydney Premier Cricket competition.
A lot of responsibility will be on the shoulders of international Monty Panesar to add to his tally of one wicket so far in this match.
The match is being played at Old Kings Oval and after the first day’s play the home side were 2/92 in reply to the Ghosts 206.
After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Ghosts line up was set on posting a big score in good conditions.
And this seemed on course with openers Aaron Yabsley and Mitch Carruthers putting on 60 for the first wicket, before Yabsley was caught when he reached 30.
This brought Nick Carruthers to the crease and together with his brother Mitch they added a further 21 runs before Mitch Carruthers was dismissed for 31 with the score at 81.
The dismissals of both Simmons and Crompton left the Ghosts at 4 down for 105 runs.
A fightback was required by the Ghosts, and they got that with a partnership of 53 between Nick Carruthers and Ash Paddison (20) steadying the ship.
With the score at 158 the Ghosts lost their fifth wicket when Nick Carruthers was dismissed after a well compiled 62.
This bought debutante Jarrod Lysaught to the crease and he was the sixth wicket to fall with the score at 171.
A small partnership between Jack Preddey and Jordan Browne took the tally to 194 before the Ghosts lost their last three wickets for 12 runs, to be all out for 206 runs.
This left the Ghosts 24 overs to bowl in the afternoon session.
The Parramatta side attacked the Ghosts bowlers to finish the day at 2/92 with Jarrod Lysaught taking his first wicket in the top grade, with international Monty Panesar taking the other wicket.
• Back at Raby 2, second grade won the toss and batted on a good deck.
However the day started badly with the loss of skipper Mitch Hinds out in the first over of the day.
An 83 run partnership bought the Ghosts back into the game before Matt Hudson was dismissed for 54. Vincent Hreszczuk and Nick Appleton followed quickly after, before a partnership between Ardil Domingo (32) and Nick Baker pushed the score to 5/139.
From this point the Ghosts powered on with some excellent batting from Baker (60), Creedence King (33) and some late hitting from Lachlan Inger (46no) saw them compile 278 off 88 overs.
Parramatta will resume next week at 0/32.
• At Merrylands, thirds lost the toss and bowled on a traditional batting wicket.
The Ghosts toiled hard to bowl Parramatta out for 268 off 75 overs.
Skipper Priyan De Zoysa and Michael Strong lead the way with three wickets each while Roshaan De Zoysa collected two scalps.
• After losing the toss on Raby 3, fourth grade had an unfortunate day with the side being bowled out for just 80 runs.
Pat O’Neill scored 37 of the side’s runs.
In reply, Parramatta finished with a 94 run lead, to be 6/174 at stumps.
O’Neill was again in the game taking three wickets, while fellow spinner Josh Langford also took three.
• Fifth grade are in strong position in their game against Parramatta on Raby 4.
After losing the toss, the opposition were dismissed for 132 runs with promising leg spinner Tanveer Sangha taking 4/20 off 15 overs.
He was well supported by veteran skipper Mark Richardson who took three wickets and young opening bowler Jarrod Tripp with a couple.
The Ghosts will resume next week at 2/42 with Sangha and Adam Denniss at the crease.
