DAN KELLY
Brisbane Grade Cricket recommenced last weekend with round one of the Bulls Masters First Grade One Day competition taking place across Brisbane.
It was the much-anticipated matchup of the round, with current and former Australian and Queensland representatives featuring when South Brisbane took on Northern Suburbs at Fehlberg Park.
The matchup featured star Queensland representative players Joe Burns and Nathan McSweeny playing for Norths, while Souths boasted former Australian T20 players Ben Cutting and Gurinder Sandhu.
The game was Sandhu’s first for Souths since his highly publicised move to the club after he represented Tasmania last year at state level.
Souths set a below-par total of 187, bowled out in the 48th over in what looked like a below par score.
Ben Cutting starred with the bat blasting 68 from just 64 deliveries, while Jamie Eccles scored a gritty 31 alongside him.
Nineteen-year-old fast bowler Connor Sully was impressive with 3-43, showing why he earned a Queensland rookie contract earlier this year.
Norths’ hopes of a calm chase were quickly dashed when Cutting claimed the wickets of Burns and McSweeney with just six runs on the board.
Norths continued to falter, sitting at 6-86 they looked out of the match until some strong lower order batting helped them stay on track during the chase.
Wickets at regular intervals continued to hurt Norths and at 8-147 requiring a further 31 runs, the task looked daunting.
However, some impressive batting from Sully and former Australian spinner Nathan Hauritz saw Norths chase down the total with 10 balls and two wickets to spare.
In his first game of Brisbane A Grade cricket for five years, Hauritz looked forward to giving back to the club that treated him well during his time in the state side.
“The clubs been so good to me, [but] I’d love to be a part of some premierships later on in the year,” Hauritz said.
Hauritz took 1-24 off seven overs with the ball on his return to Brisbane Premier Cricket, however it was his match-winning knock of 21 off 24 balls that stood out most.
“I’ve done zero preparation for my batting… so it’s the old saying ‘see ball, hit ball’, and I got a few away so it’s always nice on these days,” Hauritz said.
Despite the loss, Souths were able to take some positives away from the game.
Souths captain Ben Cutting proved his class with both bat and ball, while Tasmanian import pace bowler Gurinder Sandhu bowled tight all afternoon for his side.
Sandhu, who left Tasmania over the off-season, said it was exciting to be back and playing cricket for his new team.
“It was a great feeling to be able to get back out in the field and play cricket and for me personally playing for Souths,” he said.
Sandhu said the opportunity to move to Queensland to reignite his career was one he could not pass up.
“I was originally looking to stay in Tasmania… but I heard some news here in Brisbane and thought, ‘why not, I love the place’,” he said.
“I’m really enjoying my time in Brisbane itself, and at Souths, the boys are really good, they train really hard and are a good bunch of people,” Sandhu said.
In his first match for the club, he finished with economical figures of 0-17 off eight overs.
Souths will look to rebound against Toombul in round two, while Norths will face off against Wests at Graceville Memorial Park.