Glenmore Cricket Club News story

Weekly Club Update - Friday 19th May

19 May 2023

IT HAS BEEN A WEEK OF HIGHS and lows for our Glenmore teams. Some fantastic wins have been accompanied by some disappointing defeats, all with a number of highly impressive individual performances thrown in.

The action kicked off last Saturday when the Glenmore Knights played out a thriller against the newly formed Chinook Bengals, featuring a number of former Glenmore members. It was a truly memorable game in which the advantage swung back and forth between the teams. Bengals batted first and posted a big score of 241-6 from their 35 overs. Skipper Sazid Khan was the hero of the hour, batting beautifully for 115 when the next top score was just 32. Humza Javed and Faisal Mehmood both picked up two wickets for the Knights but a big run chase beckoned.

Things didn't get off to a great start with openers Ameer Hamza and Wasim Naqshbandi falling early to leave Knights on 13-2. But a terrific partnership between Adil Amin (85) and Abhi Gopikrishna (89) shifted the momentum back in favour of the Knights. With those two together victory seemed inevitable, but an incredible fightback from Bengals removed the two set batters and blew away our middle order. Gaurav Maniyar (16) and Gurvinder Singh Gill (15*) did their best to save the day at the end but they couldn't quite get over the line as we finished an agonizing 3 runs short. A brilliant game of cricket, and great to see Abhi making a fantastic contribution in his first 35 over game for the club.

THE KNIGHTS WERE BACK to winning ways on Wednesday as they beat both St Johns and the smoke filled air to make it two wins out of two in the T20 league. Once again Adil was involved in a big partnership, making 43 from 32 deliveries in a stand of 93 with Saad Khan. The two big hitters were on fire, with Saad being particularly brutal as he smashed a sensational 68 from just 31 balls! This onslaught took Knights to 178-9. St Johns reply never really got going as Knights managed to take wickets at regular intervals. Ameer grabbed 3 for 22 in his four overs and was the pick of the bowlers, while Freddy Bhathena chipped in with an impressive 2-10 to finish off the winnings and seal a 73 run victory.

Glenmore Knights in the smoke.

THE GLENMORE BRAVES produced a superb victory in their skippers absence on Sunday. While Manav Attri was enjoying the pleasures of Thailand, Navi Parmar took the reins in their game against Predators. Braves batted first and were going ok with all the top four making it into double figures but without going past 25. At 128-4 with only 12 overs left the innings could have gone either way. But thanks to some excellent batting from the middle order the score was almost doubled in the final dozen overs. Captain Navi got the ball rolling with a booming half century from just 41 balls. Venky Taluri chipped in a run-a-ball 27. But, it was the pyrotechnics from Rahul Singh that will live longest in the memory. The 39 balls he faced were treated with disdain as he sent 5 sailing over the rope for maximums, and a further 8 crashing away for fours. Rahul ended unbeaten on 84 at a strike rate of 215!

A total of 248-6 put the Braves in the box seat but Predators made a strong fist of their run chase. A number of their batters got in and looked as though they might take the game away from us, but the Braves bowlers maintained the discipline throughout and picked up wickets at vital times. Vaibhav Rai was the standout bowler, using his flight and guile to take 2-24 from his 7 overs. Venky also chipped in with two wickets as Predators were eventually bowled out for 226, giving Navi and his men a 22 run victory.

Navi Parmar and Rahul Singh.

THE GLENMORE ROYALS HAD THEIR FIRST match of the season against the Cavaliers at Westwinds on Monday. They were eager to get going and decided to bat first after winning the toss. After a rough start and the early loss of both openers, the team saw Gurvinder Ahuja provide solid stabilization with his score of 28 from 27 balls, supported with solid performances by newcomer Cam Whalen (17) and Arvind Azariah (19). A late flurry from Dan Meikle with 18 from 15 balls resulted in a total of 120/9 after 20 overs. The total was ultimately too low for the Royals to defend and the Cavaliers hit the winning runs in 15.5 overs. The team put up a very brave fight nonetheless and saw top bowling performance from Emaad Hasan who just missed out on a wicket but only gave away 17 runs of 4 overs, and from Cam Whelan who's figures of 4 for 10 from 3 overs won him the man of the match award! Not a bad club debut for the new Kiwi.

(above) 2023 Glenmore Royals.

(below) Theunis van der Linde presents Cam Whalen with his Man of the Match beers.

UNFORTUNATELY THE BLUES & TAVERNERS also tasted defeat on Monday evening. For the Blues there was a sense of déjà vu as they lost a wicket from the first ball of their innings for the second game in a row. Also for the second game in a row there were ducks for the unfortunate Jason 'Hammock' Funnell and Kyle Salzmann. Don't worry lads, the runs will come soon enough! There were runs for Daksh Bhatt (30*) and Nathan Kerin (32*) but unfortunately it wasn't enough as the Blues fell 57 short of their target. Earlier in the game skipper Hari Venkat was all smiles as he took a hat-trick on his way to 4-26!

The Taverners lost by 23 runs against Panthers at Riley. It was a decent effort to make 150-8 chasing an imposing 174 to win. Once again Jason Bell was the batting star, making his third 30 retirement on the spin at the top of the order. Earlier in the evening it had looked as though we'd be chasing a much smaller target as Shaun Rheeder and Amith Herath bowled beautifully with the new ball, and Rikki Panther produced a sensational direct hit run out. 19-2 after 5 overs looked great, but a torrent of sixes from the Panthers middle order meant they were too good for us on the day.

DON'T FORGET TO SIGN UP FOR Summer social events. A fun, relaxed afternoon of Lawn Bowls awaits on July 15th. And two weeks later we'll be off to McKenzie Meadows golf club for our annual Golf Day fundraiser. Family and friends are welcome to join in so please send your entry fees as soon as possible.

COMING FIXTURES

Saturday 20th May

Glenmore Knights vs Runriders Beta - Riley Park - 9am

Monday 22nd May

Glenmore Taverners vs Shaheen Warriors - Inland Large - 6pm

Wednesday 24th May

Glenmore Braves vs St John's II - Riley Park - 6pm