The Eagles’ second, third, fourth and fifth grades, as well as two Chappelow Cup teams, Auburn Green and Auburn Eagles, will be joined by the Eagles Frank Gray Shield U/24 age team which produced its best result in a long time to also reach the qualifying finals.
The Eagles First Grade had the talent and individual match winners but too many inconsistent performances would be their downfall.
An Eagles’ spokesperson said a lot of the Eagles talented junior players came through the club’s development system and played regular senior cricket with the club in the Sydney Shires and Chappelow Cup Competitions, which augurs well for the club.
With first to fourth grades having the bye last weekend, the focus was on the Eagles’ fifth grade and Chappelow Cup teams, which played their last regular competition matches before the qualifying finals.
The Eagles fifth grade took on competition heavyweights, Burwood Briars on George Parry Oval, Mona Park.
Having been sent into bat first, the Eagles openers Marlon Meurling and Sanketh Gitte took the attack to the Burwood bowlers, putting on a quick fire opening partnership of 57 runs, before Meurling was caught out for a well compiled 33.
When Gitte lost his wicket for 19, it created a batting collapse that saw the Eagles lose six wickets for 44 runs and eventually be all out for a total of 124.
When Burwood went out to bat, the Eagles needed to build pressure and take early wickets.
However, the Burwood batsmen were up to the task and batted with composure to score 4-125 and win the match.
Chappelow Cup: Auburn Green 4-102 (S Ranaweera 24, H Ashkar 22, A Gunartnarajah 21) d Roseville 101 (A Sulaiman 3-11); and Auburn Eagles 107 (S Guru 33) lost to Burwood Mustangs 8-113 (Z Ali 3-20, A Sharma 2-12).
