AW Green Shield: Semi-finals wrap from NSW’s premier U16 cricket tournament
With surprising twists and heartbreaking performances, the grand finalists for the U16s Green Shield have been decided. Full semi finals wrap and photo GALLERY.
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Now a race in two, the winner of this season’s under-16s AW Green Shield will come down to a shootout between Northern District and Parramatta.
In Thursday’s semi finals, Sydney University hosted Parramatta, and minor premiers Northern District welcomed Western Suburbs.
Here’s how the day unfolded in our semi-final wrap
STUNNING TON COMES SECOND
Northern District is one win away from a perfect season after the Rangers downed Western Suburbs, winning through to the Green Shield grand final with a 50-run victory.
Set a formidable 8/255, Wests’ Jack Jobson lit up Mark Taylor Oval, almost carrying his side across the line with a fabulous century.
Left stranded on 103, the wicketkeeper simply ran out of partners as ND’s skipper Finn Bailey wrapped up the innings for 205 with two late wickets.
Now unbeaten in eight starts, another win in Sunday’s decider would mark the club’s first title since 2020-21.
Relying on a deep pool of talent, the win was built on a massive first innings total that included seven double-figure scores, before more than a handful of bowlers combined to keep the reply in check.
Despite finishing in the losing change room, Jobson showed maturity and class in a 110-ball knock that included seven boundaries.
It wasn’t all milk and honey for the home side. The dismissal of last-start century-maker Lachlan Bartlett in the third over of the day sent shivers through the pavilion before fellow opener Zachary Haddin quickly found his stride.
Keeping pace with the clock, Haddin brought up his 50 from 54 balls before he became Atharv Dwivedi’s second victim, departing at 3/112 in the 27th over.
The best of Wests’ attack, Dwivedi (4/37, 10 overs) bagged another and at 4/124 ND’s needed all hands on deck.
Bailey returned to his destructive best hitting 55 off 43, and was well supported by late order hitting from Zachary Rapa (32 off 37) and Oliver Makin (24* off 16).
CARDIAC KINGS
Parramatta have done it again.
After “getting out of jail” in the quarter final against Gordon, they’ve backed it up with an absorbing two-wicket victory over Sydney University to book their place in a third straight grand final.
Seemingly on the ropes at 6/158 in pursuit of Uni’s 9/197, Charlie Akle repeated his quarter final heroics with another match-saving innings. Watching on as a stream of partners came and went, he stood firm, finishing unbeaten on 44 from 60 balls.
Earlier in the innings, openers Advik Ajithkumar (34 off 39) and Hamilton Seoung (62 off 91) looked like getting it done inside 30 overs. But the nerves took over when paceman Nicholli Thompson (4-21) made repeated breakthroughs.
In an epic contest between two evenly match sides, Uni’s day got off to a bright start when openers Edward Shand (20 off 36) and Archie O’Hara (38 off 93) added 46 inside 12 overs.
But in a sign of things to come, Evan David took the ball as second change and made an immediate impact. Hitting the crease hard, the right-armer found the edge of Shand’s bat with a wide ball, and followed it up with arguably the ball of the tournament.
Just as Uni skipper Arnav Yadav (12 off 17) looked like settling in for a long stay, David undid the classy right-hander with an absolute jaffer that cut back off the seam and clipped the top of the off stump.
At 2/64, Parra continued to turn the screws with spin. Bowling in tandem, Ethan Natkunamanickam (1/29) and Leon Cooray (2/28) joined forces to finish with a combined 3/57 from 20 overs.
Used to bowling in critical periods, Cooray’s call to bowl around the wicket paid handsome dividends when O’Hara clubbed the off-spinner into the waiting hands of Jayden Paskaranathan at deep mid-wicket.
Treading water at 5/106, the home side responded with a fluent 68-run partnership from Monte Cairns (53 off 71) and Oliver Lista (31 off 45).
But any thoughts of a score north of 200 evaporated with the return of David, who closed out the innings with three wickets.
GRAND FINAL: SUNDAY, 26 JANUARY
Northern District (1) v Parramatta (4), venue to be decided
SEASON TO DATE
Northern District: 8 wins, 0 losses, 1 NR
Parramatta: 6 wins, 1 loss, 2 NR
LEADING RUNS
Lachlan Bartlett (Northern District), 320 at 53.3
Hamilton Seoung (Parramatta), 271 at 38.7
Finn Bailey (Northern District), 251 at 62.8
Xander Carstens (Northern District), 244 at 48.8
Zachary Haddin (Northern District), 241 at 40.2
Advik Ajithkumar (Parramatta), 210 at 30.0
Reyansh Sharma (Parramatta), 181 at 45.25
LEADING WICKETS
Lachlan Bartlett (Northern District), 18 at 12.3
Max Guazzarotto (Northern District), 15 at 11.9
Evan David (Parramatta), 12 at 17.5
Finn Bailey (Northern District), 11 at 13.6
Ethan Natkunamanickam (Parramatta), 8 at 29.9
Cameron Knight (Parramatta), 7 at 24.7
TITLES
Northern District: Five – 1968/69, 1969/70, 1977/78, 1978/79, 2018/19, 2020/21
Parramatta: Seven – 1960/61, 1975/76, 1997/98, 2000/01, 2007/08, 2017/18, 2022/23
PHOTO GALLERY
Sydney University v Parramatta
Northern District v Western Suburbs
Photos to follow ...
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