NSW Premier Cricket report card: stars, standouts, top performers in Sydney grade
Teenagers, schoolteachers and the son of a famous NRL player. These are some of the stars and standouts in NSW Premier Cricket this season.
Penrith
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It’s been a competition few will forget, a season interrupted and affected by a global pandemic, stormy weather and safety restrictions which impacted some of the sports great traditions.
But the 2020/21 Premier Cricket season has also thrown up some extraordinary performances and memorable results.
Just past the midway point of the season we take a look at some of the standouts and recap some of the best stories from the comps opening rounds.
T20 REPLAY: Who has made it into the Kingsgrove Cup decider?
ROUND ONE
Round one opened with a bang with the spotlight hitting a young student, Axel Cahlin.
The 22-year-old, who made his Premier Cricket debut when just 16, scored his ninth century as cricketers from across Sydney hit the field for the first time.
ROUND TWO
One players stood out in round two and that was Mathew Gilkes.
The Sydney Thunder player scored an astounding 200 for the first double century since the 2017/2018 season. It remains the best individual haul this season. FULL STORY
On the same day teenager Lachlan Shaw scored 107 in only his second first-grade match to shake up the record books, Tom Jagot scored his seventh century and Aiden Bariol his first.
James Seymour scored 137 for Randwick Petersham while in the bowling department
Marcus Atallah produced career best figures (6/49), Brock Larance too 5/67 and Mohammad Shinwari 5/74.
A week later batsman Nick Carruthers scored a stirring 112 for Bankstown - which included 13 fours and three sixes.
And in a remarkable coincidence, on the same day his younger brother Mitchell scored 127 not out in second grade for Campbelltown-Camden against Fairfield. FULL STORY
ROUND THREE
It was a game Parramatta’s Michael Sullivan will long remember with the 23-year-old one of four bowlers to take five wickets in an innings for the first time in the third round of NSW Premier Cricket.
Sullivan starred for his club as Gordon’s Jackson Saggers, Campbelltown-Camden’s Ben Patterson and Sutherland’s Tushaar Garg did for their teams on the same day.FULL STORY.
A week later a pair of brothers just fell short of being a part of a remarkable coincidence shared with two of Australia’s most famous cricket siblings, the Waugh twins, 40 years apart. FULL STORY
ROUND FOUR
An inform Tom Jagot became the top run scorer in first grade after a weather interrupted round four game.
In other performances of note Ryan Felsch (Sydney) scored his third 90 (93 against Fairfield-Liverpool) and Taj Brar (Gordon), without a half-century in 15 previous first-grade innings, scored 93 against Manly-Warringah.
ROUND FIVE
Top-order batsman Anthony Mosca was a standout in round five with a second century in three innings. The Sydney player scored 123 in the match against UTS North Sydney.
His teammate Ryan Felsch also turned heads with others standouts including Will Affleck (Randwick Petersham), James Psarakis (Western Suburbs), Tym Crawford (Gordon), Caelan Maladay and Arjun Nair (Fairfield-Liverpool). FULL STORY
ROUND SIX
Some great performances and stories came out of this round.
Manly youngster Jack Edwards got things going when he scored his first century in Premier Cricket.
The young gun had already scored a first-class century with the Blues. FULL STORY
Schoolteacher Andrew Walsh’s best previous score in grade cricket was 63 until this round.
Then he notched a tally more than three times higher in an extraordinary day out in Premier Cricket which left clubmates and coaches highly emotional. FULL STORY
The same weekend, the son of former rugby league player Glen Liddiard, caused quite a fuss.
Tyran Liddiard, playing for Penrith, scored his maiden ton. FULL STORY
ROUND SEVEN
There was a player notable by his absence at the end of round seven - Nick Bertus.
The Parramatta captain was missing from action when his side took on Sydney on the second day of round seven after picking up a contract as a local cover for Nathan Lyon.
But it was an absence cricketers were more than happy to see as Bertus was back doing what he loves best. FULL STORY
Other performances of note in the round included Blues captain Peter Nevill scoring his 13th ton in Premier Cricket, Manly-Warringah opener Joel Foster scoring his first and his teammate Jack Edwards making back-to-back centuries.
Randwick-Petersham’s Daya Singh became just the ninth player in first grade history to score a century batting at No. 9, Sutherland’s Tom Doyle scored 102 in his 100th first grade game and Western Suburbs skipper Josh Clarke produced career-best figures of 5-69 against Mosman.
ROUND EIGHT
He’s good friends with Manly’s rising stars Ollie Davies and Jack Edwards but only the most dedicated cricket fan had heard of Isaiah ‘Izzy’ Vumbaca prior to this round.
But that all changed after an extraordinary day out. FULL STORY
The growing coronavirus on the northern beaches prior to Christmas then saw all cricket postponed or cancelled.
Cricket wasn’t the only sport affected by the drama with the Sydney to Hobart also cancelled for the first time in 76 years and Kingsgrove Cup T20 games rescheduled to January. FULL STORY
ROUND NINE
Sydney cricket returns and so did the big hitters and one young gun with a remarkable story.
When Puru Gaur came from India to visit his uncle in Scone for a two week holiday he never imagined for a second he would still be here 17 months later.
A chance conversation at a Kingsgrove Sports shop in Newcastle while buying shoes back in August 2019 has parlayed into Gaur playing his second season of cricket in Australia but his first in Sydney.
And he’s been making quite an impact for Randwick Petersham. FULL STORY
There were also plenty of batsmen turning heads - including Tom Doyle, Jame McCormack and Scott Copperfield - who all scored centuries. FULL STORY
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