INDIAN RUNS & ENGLISH WICKETS SEAL OZ DAY WIN FOR BINGLES

THE PENMAN Diversity is not an old wooden ship as the movie Anchorman would have you believe. Diversity is in fact the Killara Bingles cricket team, a compelling combination of cultures proving too much for The Dreggs to handle in round 15. On the day that Australians celebrate their magnificent nation, it was two men of Indian & one man of English heritage that helped Killara sail away with a comfortable 63 run win. Aware of the Bingles penchant for bowling first, The Dreggs won the toss & decided theyd field. While Killara started slowly, the key to breaking them down is early wickets, The Dreggs unable to bag any inside the first ten overs. But with the hard yakka done, James True fell victim to a rank leg side ball that lobbed off his glove to the keeper. Enter Julian Nicholls. He gave The Dreggs unlikely first pole pincher exactly what he deserved 20 runs from his only two overs. Nicholls & The Penman peeled off 37 runs from the next five overs before this pen pushers scratchy knock ended at 25, given out LBW to a ball that pitched outside leg & struck him on the thigh pad. A confident Jack Philp marched to the crease after an outstanding social display at a recent ODI. Sadly though he missed a straight full one with everything bar his pad, though his influence on the match would be of a telling note later on. Meanwhile Nicholls steadied & readied himself for a big one as newcomer Neill Miller joined him nearing the drinks break. Innocuous in his stroke play before drinks, Miller returned & cracked boundaries in the same way his countrymen were cracking VB tinnies around the nation. He whacked seven fours in a whirlwind 36, Nicholls chiming in with two thunderous straight sixs into a swirling breeze. While the fourth wicket partnership sizzled like Australia Day snags, The Dreggs blew up like a rusty gas bottle in the face of Nicholls ferocious onslaught. He picked apart all bowlers on his way to another fifty; walking at the medium pacers, brutalizing one poor sod with a 65 meter strike over mid-on that nearly felled a gum tree. While Millers cameo came to a halt in the 27th over, The Dreggs had ceded all control of the match; Killara grafting an outrageous 88 runs from the ten overs following refreshments. With an elusive century beckoning the Killara skipper accelerated, Ed Lembke-Hogan proving the perfect foil as he the farmed strike to his captain, while smashing the occasional whopper himself. With four half centuries already banked for 2012/13, Nicholls wasnt keen on registering number five & he moved swiftly to secure a maiden ton. After brushing a six over square leg for 99, a single produced the second hundred of the season for the Bingles, a superb century for Nicholls stamping him as the premier batsman of the B-Grade 1-Day competition. Like Vindaloo personified, Nicholls was too hot for The Dreggs, he pulverised even the opening bowlers as they returned to the attack.

Jack Roach made it an all-Indian affair at the crease when Lembke-Hogan departed & in an ohmage to his skipper hoisted a ginormous six over square leg. If not for the steep western hill, the six stitcher would have finished up in the Space Station Maccas drive through. For the remainder of the innings Nicholls pumped the bowlers to the boundary while his tail end support act turned the strike over to him, even managing a few rope encroachers themselves. Thanks to Nicholls innings for the ages; the final ten overs yielded a staggering 100 runs leaving The Dreggs with a monstrous 272 for victory. Without regular openers Turner & Barry, Lembke-Hogan & Roach were called upon to fire down the new ball. L-Hogan heaped pepper all over his offerings as the batsmen battled to lay anything other than edge on his deliveries. Persistence in line & length paid off for Roach when he castled The Dreggs captain in the eighth over but in pursuit of a massive target the batsmens calculated risks were paying off. A retirement halted the rapid & very fluky progress of one of The Dreggs openers but not before hed registered 50. And when The Penman blasted his way through for a wicket the Bingles felt the tug of a momentum shift. The post drinks period was just as prosperous for the batters in the second innings as the scoring rate exploded once again. The Penman again bowled without luck & without consistency, his bowling figures taking on ugly proportions. Mike Sheasbys energy in the field resembled that of Jack Mansfield & so did some of his deliveries as he drew the next breakthrough thanks to a sky high top edge & brave take from Damien Strouthos. There was no let up from the leather rain though, The Dreggs racing their own wickets to see if a kamikaze style run chase could get the job done before they ran out of fuel. But they hadnt counted on little English whippersnapper Jack Philp, who turned out to be Nicholls sixth & final bowling option. Philp, & a returning Roach, would eventually wipe out five of the final six wickets in a game-changing spell of medium pace bowling. Having returned several minor scorers, Philps crowning moment was the dismissal of The Dreggs second drop, as he fell trying to maintain an unsustainably high run rate. It would prove to be the loose nut in the railroad as The Dreggs run chase capitulated like Sam Stosur on a home court. From an advantageous 4/140 in the in the 24th over, they collapsed to be all out for 208 in the 36th. Figures of 4/29 from five overs were just reward for Philp, who held his nerve wonderfully despite some tense & pressurized moments. The contributions of messrs Nicholls, Roach & Philp ensured top spot for Killara heading into their second bye &, thanks to quirk in the coming round, ensures the Bingles are finals bound in their maiden season. A victory built on depth was no doubt the most pleasing aspect of this win, as Killara will welcome back a host of players in a fortnights time. Belief is high, as are

competition points for a team that that welcomes all cultures, comers & characters.