Collaroy Plateau Cricket Club The biggest park cricket club on Sydney's Northern Beaches
By John Jackson
All three of the Colombo games were played against young teams from the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) School of cricket. The teams turned out to be pretty evenly matched with CPCC winning the series 2-1.
The oppressive heat was the ever present factor in all our games on tour. We played games in weather conditions that would lead to Sydney masters games being cancelled. Within a few minutes after the start of the first game it became apparent that 40 over games and short bowling spells were mandatory. Thanks to the younger and or fitter players on tour who carried the fielding load. We created small mountains of empty water bottles during each match.
Moors Sports Club and the Colombo Colts CC are both premier championship (first class) grounds in Sri Lanka. The current Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews came through the Colombo Colts CC. Most of the wickets we played on were hard and good batting wickets. They did not resemble the dust bowls that I played on in India many years ago.
11/4/16 Game 1 CPCC v SSC School of Cricket @ Moors Sports Club.
Captain: Rob Minnett Day Manager: John Jackson
SSC 135 in 35 overs (D Bennetts 4-8, C Allomes 2-4,G Rose 2-9) def by
CPCC 3-154 in 23 overs (D Wheeler 73, S Albanese 42*)
CPCC won the toss and bowled. Tight bowling particularly from Dr Bennetts supported by excellent fielding enabled CPCC to control the innings. Lachie and Rosy took great catches.
A solid partnership between Dom and Craig followed by an aggressive knock by Albo produced a good first up win. Dom batted consistently well on tour perhaps reflecting his added experience on turf in his domestic season.
12/4/16 Game 2 CPCC v SSC School of Cricket @ Moors Sports Club
Captain: Brenden Ball Day Manager: John Jackson
CPCC 194 in 40 overs (A Davis 28, A Pappandrea 57, D Bennetts 35,B Ball 28) def. by
SSC 197 in 40 overs (A Davis 2-17)
CPCC batted first and batted well following an early run out. ’D’ and Papps established a platform and David and Brendo carried it on to a very competitive total.
Basically we bowled well but poor catching killed our chances of winning this close and exciting game. Perhaps the heat and celebratory lion lagers from the previous day took their toll. Our young hosts were delighted with the result.
20/4/16 Game 6 CPCC v SSC School of Cricket @ Colombo Colts Cricket Club.
Captain: Andrew Davis Day Manager: Craig Allomes
CPCC 4-138 in 20 overs (B Flint 58,B Ball 28) def.
SSC 10-90 in 18 overs (S Albanese 2-22, A Pappandrea 3-15, D Bennetts 3-11)
15 over Game CPCC 1-51 in 6 overs (T Horstead 28) when rain stopped play.
This game was played on a seaming wicket after overnight rain. Some tourists were sceptical when the umpires suggested a game in 20 over quarters due to the forecast rain at 3.00 pm. The tour forecaster Camo supported this view and said the prevailing breeze had turned onshore and that indicated the monsoon had arrived.
An attacking batting approach gave us a commanding first quarter total. Big Bruce took advantage of some early let offs and smacked the bowling to all parts. He was well supported by David and Brendo.
Our medium pacers exploited the seaming surface well. Key wickets to Papps and Albo against their best batters put tremendous pressure on the SSC lower order and they succumbed rather meekly.
We then commenced a 15 over game to fill out the day. At 2.50 pm there was a loud clap of thunder and by 3.05 it was torrential rain and a spectacular lightning display. The monsoon had indeed arrived at our last game in Sri Lanka.
