Intercol cricket: match report 2024

In an extremely close match, Blackfriars took out the 2024 Intercol cricket match against Christian Brothers College (CBC). Thanks to Blackfriars co-curricular administrator Gareth Cox for the following report.

Day 1

CBC won the toss and elected to bat on a glorious day at St Dominic's Oval. After some tight bowling and watchful batting, Daniel Seal took two quick wickets to leave CBC 2/33 from 19 overs.

Throughout the day the play ebbed and flowed, with CBC striking a few partnerships and Blackfriars consistently taking wickets. With only 11 overs left in the day's play, CBC declared with the score 9/170. The wickets were shared with Daniel Seal, Joshua Dennis and Maneet Gopinathan all taking two wickets and Ashton Zeuner, Charlie Morkunas and Lucas Diorio having one wicket each.

A difficult 11 overs followed. James Roissetter and William Renney went to work with the focus on survival, but also tried to put the pressure back on CBC by scoring points. A fantastic period of cricket ended with Blackfriars 0/26, culminating in a Will Renney hook shot for 6!

Day 2

Overnight the heavens opened and 10mm of rain fell on St Doms cricket ground, leading to a two and a half hour delay, leaving just 60 overs possible for the remainder of Day 2.

Needing to take the game forward to win and regain the Intercol trophy, James Roissetter and Will Renney made great progress taking the score to 84 before both were quickly dismissed, leaving Blackfriars 2/93. Roissetter made 49, while Renney made 34.

Some tight bowling by the CBC spinners and their ability to keep taking wickets left Blackfriars 9/188 at the end of the game. Slightly behind the Blackfriars coaches' target, but still ahead by 18. Ben Stargatt was the mainstay of the innings with a patient 53 from 148 deliveries.

Day 3

We set out 30 minutes early to regain some overs lost the day before, meaning a maximum of 100 overs is possible to try and get a result.

With Blackfriars 9/188 overnight the decision was made for captain Riley Hutt to declare CBC and send back into bat in the hope of taking some early wickets. Once again it was Daniel Seal who broke the deadlock, leaving CBC 1/33 after 13 overs.

As with the CBC's first innings, there were partnerships, but Blackfriars were always able to take a wicket when necessary to ensure the match did not get away. 2/90 quickly became 5/103, mainly thanks to Lucas Diorio's two runouts that completely turned the game upside down. At 7/147 CBC looked to be in trouble but a great partnership of 46 saw them lose their eighth wicket only when the score was 193.

The score was 8/199 when CBC declared, leaving Blackfriars 180 runs in 40 overs. A brilliant statement that still made all three results possible and gave both sides the chance to win the match going into the final session.

Once again James Roissetter and William Renney set the tone of this innings, with a quick partnership of 23. Both openers were back in the sheds with the score at 50 from 12 overs.

The next 18 overs set up the joint highest partnership in the game. Maneet Gopinathan and Ben Stargatt played excellently as they scored 84 from 18 overs to ensure they could keep up the required run rate while keeping wickets in hand.

Maneet was dismissed for a well-made 34 off 49 balls, which brought Riley Hutt into the crease. A big hit from the skipper, who made a run-a-ball 25, put Blackfriars within touching distance of the trophy before he was dismissed as he still needed 13 to win. Lucas Diorio stepped to the crease and put the match beyond doubt, before Ben Stargatt scored the winning runs to finish with a brilliant 73 from 92 balls, including nine fours. Blackfriars finished at 4/183 with 11 balls to spare.

A bright future

Ben Stargatt was judged Best on Ground for Blackfriars, the Year 9 student taking the honor for the second year in a row.

With one year 8s, four year 9s, two year 10s, one year 11s and two year 12s in the team, it was a fantastic achievement for everyone involved. Thank you to coaches Dylan Bignell and Isaac Lawrence for their part in helping the group throughout the year.

All in all it was three fantastic days of cricket, played in a great atmosphere, and it went down to the last detail. Thanks to CBC for contributing to a great game. We are already looking forward to next year.