By Jake Santa Maria
YANCHEP Redhawks are up against it as their batting woes continued against Warwick-Greenwood last Saturday.
Redhawks captain Michael Knight made the easy call to bat first on a cool sunny day and a quick outfield on offer at the Splendid Park ground in Yanchep.
Opener Nathan Dunn (19) played some glorious straight drives early on to start the scoring before trying one too many and found himself caught at mid on.
Warwick opening bowler Andrew Askew suffered a hip injury and had to leave the field leaving them a bowler and fielder down for the rest of the day.
Fellow opener Jack Cope was out caught shortly after to leave Yanchep 2-27 after the first 10 overs.
Yanchep looked to rebuild but for the second week in a row lost regular wickets and struggled to gain momentum against some tight bowling.
Warwick bowler Richard Nguyen (2-24) found plenty of swing in the windy conditions while fellow paceman Kasey Bond was mercurial picking up 2-8 off seven overs with some genuine pace.
Batsmen Matt Hunter had a torrid time in the middle having been given out lbw only to have it overturned by Warwick after they showed good sportsmanship telling the umpire he hit it.
He was also dropped at slip twice but he fought through it admirably to top score and anchor the innings with 27.
Hunter was the only batter to pass 20 as Warwick shared around the wickets with Yanchep being their own worst enemies at times with six of their 10 wickets being catches.
Kevin Hall and Sam Wilton provided some lower order hitting particularly targeting the spinners but Yanchep were bundled out for 106.
In reply Warwick got off to a rocky start with Hall and Chirag Karson picking up an early wicket each to have them 2-14.
Warwick stabilised putting on 36 for the next wicket before Sajan Karson struck late to give Yanchep a glimmer of hope.
But with Warwick having seven wickets still in hand and only 49 to get the Redhawks will have to pull off something extraordinary to steal a win on Saturday.
