Campbelltown Camden Ghosts have completed two rounds of the Sydney Cricket Association competition and all grades have got points after playing one day matches over the past two Saturdays, reports Jason Ellsmore.
This weekend it was the bottom grades who took the points against the traditionally stronger teams from Randwick Petersham CC.
Third, fourth and fifth grades had solid wins, while first grade paid the penalty for poor shot selection, and second grade threw away a commanding start, eventually failing to defend a relatively small total on the batting friendly Raby # 1 ground.
The first grade match was played at Coogee Oval and after the Ghosts captain Josh Clarke sent Randwick Petersham into bat he would have left the ground at the completion of their innings fairly confident of chasing down the 6/246.
The pick of the Ghosts bowlers was Tom Rogers, who finished with 2/32 from nine overs.
Only Ghosts batsmen Ryan Gibson (44) and Jordan Gauci (35) got away to reasonable starts with a tidy 25 not out from Jordan Browne in the lower order worthy of mention. The Ghosts were dismissed for 194 having missed an opportunity to take the points.
Back home at Raby the local supporters were treated to some aggressive batting from teenager Jarred Lysaught, who opened with 65 runs and Ardil Domingo fought hard through a tough period for 28 runs, before an unexpected collapse turned the Ghosts innings on its head.
The Ghosts were cruising at 1/100 but soon found themselves at 6/130, at one stage losing four wickets in 10 balls.
Jack Bray salvaged the innings with a nice 42 in the lower middle order as the Ghosts were dismissed for 226 runs -which given their start should have been a lot more.
Despite fighting hard on the Raby wicket, and the Ghosts bowlers sharing the seven dismissals, the locals were passed in the 47th over by Randwick-Petersham. Hameed Kherkhah finished the day with the tidy figures of 1-28 off his 10 overs.
Campbelltown Camden’s third grade total of 274 runs was always going to be a tough number to chase by their opponents on Petersham Oval.
Toby Flynn-Duncombe made a wonderful 85 runs and was well supported by his captain PJ De Zoysa (39) after Chaitnya Sharma had continued his great form from last season with 46 runs.
Falling exactly 100 runs short, Randwick Petersham were dismissed on the back of three wickets from both Josh Appleton and Chris Halloran, while skipper PJ De Zoysa took four.
The Ghosts fourth grade completed their morning at Raby having bowled 40 overs of spin to the Randwick-Petersham batsmen.
This proved to be a good strategy as Randwick Petersham were contained to 8/163. Muneeb Sharazi (3/21), Ryan Smith (2/34) and Joshua Langford (2/33) were the pick of the bowlers.
Wicket-keeper Todd O’Keefe also enjoyed his morning figuring in four dismissals with a double of catches and stumpings.
But the afternoon belonged to teenager Nick Bruce whose 62 runs secured the locals victory inside 30 overs. He was well supported by Reece Nikitaris with 29.
The Ghosts fifth grade made short work of Randwick Petersham at Kensington. Dismissing them for 168 runs in 46 overs, the Ghosts chased them down by the 40th over for the loss of six wickets.
Max Clarke (60) and Vincent Hreszczuk (32) starred with the bat whilst earlier in the day Lleyton Wallace had taken four wickets to be the pick of the Ghosts bowlers.
Next week the Ghosts travel to Mosman for Round Three matches, playing the first two day matches of the season. Second and fourth grade will remain at home with play starting at the Raby Sports Complex from 10.30am and 12.45pm respectively.
