Blues name squad for Matador One Day Cup

New South Wales have named their squad for the Matador One Day Cup series which will kick off at Allan Border Field in Brisbane on October 4th.

The Matador Cup will be played throughout October in a tournament style format as it was in 2013, although unlike last year in which the tournament was held in Sydney, this year will see games played in both NSW and Queensland.

All six states are represented, and will play seven matches each. The second and third ranked sides will play off in a preliminary final, in which the winner will meet the top ranked side in the final at the SCG on October 26th.

The Blues take on the South Australian Redbacks in their opening match on Saturday, with All-rounder Moises Henriques chosen to lead the side in the absence of a number of players unavailable due to injury or international commitments.

Regular Skipper Michael Clark is recovering from a hamstring strain, while all-rounder Shane Watson will once again miss games through injury – this time with an ankle complaint.

Brad Haddin, Dave Warner, Steve Smith, Stephen O’Keefe, Nathan Lyon, Mitchell Starc and Sean Abbott are all in the UAE, representing Australia in their one day series against Pakistan, while Pat Cummins and Doug Bollinger are both involved in the Champions League in India.

The NSW team have grown accustomed to players being unavailable over the years and have generally covered the absences well. The squad for the 2014 Matador Cup appears to be no exception.

The majority of the squad is made up from the players who helped NSW to the final of the Ryobi Cup (as the tournament was called) last season. The only newcomer is Northern District off-spinner Chris Green, who took 21 wickets at 26.19 in Sydney Grade cricket last season.

However the player to watch could well be Nic Maddinson. The 22 year old averaged 36.28 in the Ryobi Cup last year after being called up for Australia in a T20 match a month earlier. Maddison scored 113 in his first class debut for NSW, and has started the season off in promising form. He has brought up centuries in both a recent trial match for NSW, and in the City vs Country fixture two weeks ago.

Penrith’s Josh Lalor is also coming into the tournament showing some good signs. He took 5-43 against North Sydney in the opening round of Sydney grade cricket last weekend.

The full NSW squad: Moises Henriques (Captain), Ryan Carters, Trent Copeland, Chris Green, Josh Hazlewood, Scott Henry, Josh Lalor, Nic Maddinson, Peter Nevill, Kurtis Patterson, Ben Rohrer, Gurinder Sandhu

Haddin blasts 94, but NSW squad fails to impress in first weekend of Sydney grade cricket

The McDonalds Sydney Grade cricket competition kicked off on the weekend with a number of the NSW squad turning out for their local clubs.

Brad Haddin was the standout of the NSW players on show, belting an impressive 94 not out to help Northern Districts reach 1 for 135 at stumps, in reply to Bankstown’s first innings total of 207 at Bankstown Oval.

Haddin’s innings included 10 fours and six sixes and came off just 71 balls in 77 minutes.

As Haddin flew out with the Australian T-20 squad to the UAE yesterday, he will be unable to continue his innings next week, leaving him just four short of a century in his first time at the crease this summer.

Steve Smith scored 42 runs off 87 balls out of Sutherland’s total of 281, before being caught off the bowling of Sanduh in their match against Fairfield-Liverpool. The home side was 0 for 22 in reply at stumps.

Manly- Warringah chose to bat in their home game against Sydney University scoring 250 in their first innings, of which Steven O’Keefe scored a disappointing eight runs before being caught by fellow NSW squad member Ryan Carters.

Uni in reply were 1 for 24 at stumps, with Sean Abbott not out on six. Scott Henry missed out, being caught and bowled by O’Keefe for only 10 runs, while Carters who was listed to open did not bat.

Josh Lalor took five wickets for 43 runs off 16 overs for Penrith in their match against North Sydney, helping restrict the visitors to only 170 in their first innings. At the close of play Penrith were 105 for the loss of two wickets.

St George boasted four members of the NSW squad in their line up against University of NSW. However after being sent in by the visitors, none of the four impressed, with Copeland (26), Patterson (16), Hazelwood (13), and Henriques (1) all out cheaply.

UNSW were 3 for 69 in reply at stumps, with Hazelwood taking one of those wickets. He finished with figures of 1 for 29, while Henriques and Copeland failed to take a wicket between them off a combined 14 overs.

Apart from Haddin and Lalor, and to a lesser extent Smith, the NSW squad member’s efforts over the first round of Sydney grade cricket were generally disappointing. NSW selectors no doubt would have been hoping for better with the Matador BBQ Cup kicking off next week.

Although the NSW squad members didn’t fare as well as they would have liked over the opening weekend of the season, there were some other stand out performances. Michael Castle (141), Ryan Gibson (129), and Jeff Cook (100), all scored centuries, while as well as Haddin, Brenton Cherry and Ahillen Beedle were both dismissed in the 90s.

Anthony Clark (5 for 67), from Fairfield-Liverpool was the only other bowler besides Lalor to take five wickets, although Chris Greene took 4 for 31, while Brandon McLean and Pat Lawrence claimed three wickets each.

 

McDonald’s Sydney Grade Cricket Round 1 Results

Bankstown 207 (J Cormack 85, D Solway 43; C Green 4-31, M Phillips 3-34, H Conway 3-42) v Northern District 1-135 (B Haddin 94)

Blacktown 155 (S Keen 54, G Crompton 31; P Lawrence 3-23) v Hawkesbury 2-85 (D Mckay 36no)

Fairfield-Liverpool 0-22 v Sutherland 281 (M Brown 79, P Saroukos 45, S Smith 42, M Hughston 33; A Clark 5-67)

Manly-Warringah 250 (A Beadle 90, T Cruickshank 59, J Lenton 43; W Somerville 4-76, T Ley 3-52) v Sydney University 1-24

Mosman 0-14 v Gordon 333 (R Bombas 77, S Colley 76, T Crawford 66, H Evans 33; E Clugston 3-57, J Krejza 3-58)

Parramatta 7-329 (M Castle 141, B Cherry 96, S Cassel 34no; T Yazdani 3-57) v Eastern Suburbs

Penrith 2-105 (S Finemore 37no, P Jackson 31) v North Sydney 170 (R Aitken 51, J Aitken 35; J Lalor 5-43, R Smith 3-36)

Randwick Petersham 2-67 (J Scicluna 34) v Campbelltown-Camden 283 (R Gibson 129, D Mortimer 57, A Coyte 49; B McLean 3-30, N Ellis 3-78)

St George 274 (S McCabe 88, A May 87; J Turner 3-74, J Connolly 3-81) v University of NSW 3-69

Western Suburbs 6-294 (J Cook 100, A Glendenning 57no, S Siriwardhane 42, D Barber 33; N Sowter 4-100) v Sydney