With Warringah winning the toss and electing to bat first on a good hard wicket and a well grassed quick outfield, the Eagles bowlers needed to start well and maintain early pressure on the Warringah batters.
The Eagles started well, taking an early wicket when left arm seamer Zain Khan had one of the Warringah opening batters caught by wicketkeeper Alex Daniels, with the score on 1/1.
Bowling on tandem, medium pace seamer Mark Bursa (1/24 off 8 overs), off-spinner Gihan Ebert (3/28 off 9 over) and Captain Yasir Ali bowled with tight control (8/141).
Some late order hitting from the Warringah tail end batters, managed to push their total to 178.
The Eagles’ opening batters Amanjyoy Singh and Asad Usman took up the challenge and with an aggressive mindset, repelled the attack of Warringah’s opening bowlers.
In particular, Singh set about hitting the bowlers to all parts of the oval until he was dismissed for 29 runs with the score at 36.
With the dismissal of Singh, Usman batted solidly to keep the score moving along, until he was also out for a well composed score of 43 runs, and the score at 3/75.
Unfortunately, the dismissal of Usman saw a batting collapse with the Eagles losing 7 wickets for just 59 runs and finishing all out for just 134 runs, 54 runs short of the required target.
They will need to urgently re-group, put the losses behind them and bounce back in the last match at home on George Parry Oval, Mona Park, against last Balmain-South Sydney.
Grade cricket: 1st Grade, Auburn 134 (A Usman 43, A Singh 29) lost to Warringah 178 (G. Ebert 3/28); 2nd Grade, Auburn 3/52 (S Nouree 22 no) d Warringah 51; 3rd Grade, Auburn 9/264 (S Bridges 56, A Young 41, A Diwan 37 no, S Gitte 28, L Weiley 21) d Warringah 5/263 (Ameer Shah 2/38, A Hadley 2/59); 5th Grade, Auburn 167 (A Sriran 45, J Sohare 25, A Kansara 20, A Haider 20 d Lindfield 80; Frank Gary Shield, Auburn 4/228 (B Pearson 64, P Andonopoulos 63, G Ebert 49 no d Strathfield 227 (G Ebert 3/35, B Pearson 3/35).
