Sydney batsman Damian Bourke averages above 500 in grade cricket

Damian Bourke who plays for club outfit St. George, Sydney has numbers which are so mind boggling that it can make any common guy’s eyes pop out. To start with his batting average is more than five times higher to the game’s greatest ever- Sir Donald Bradman. Clearly, it seems like Australia has another Bradman emerging in Australian cricket.

After seven rounds of first-grade this year Damian Bourke averages a whopping 528 with the willow. He has been dismissed just once and has scored two hundreds and two half-centuries. Bourke’s average is the highest average ever recorded in the history of the first-grade competition.

One of the nation’s greatest ever all-rounders holds the highest average from a completed season (minimum 500 runs). The second is former Australian skipper Monty Noble finished the 1898/99 summer with 546 runs at 273.00.

“It was his birthday last week and we had a few drinks after his latest hit, 60 not out, and we were discussing the fact he’s hit 528 at an average of 528,” club teammate and former Aussie paceman Trent Copeland said.

“And I said he should probably hang them up. We’ve only got a one-dayer now before Christmas so Damian’s got some soul searching to do as to whether he wants to keep playing. I’d be contemplating going out on a high.”

An “accumulator” according to Copeland, with a value on his wicket in the vicinity of a Manhattan penthouse, Bourke’s first-grade run sheet in 2015/16 reads: 74*, 170*, 49, 175* and 60*.

The second innings has also been penciled into the record books as part of the highest fourth wicket partnership in 122 years of Sydney grade cricket — one-half of the undefeated 370-run stand he and Ashton May (203*) put on Sydney in October.

St. George paceman Trent Copeland is captivated by Bourke’s incredible run of form. “I open in the one-day and T20 games and typically bat four or five. But both Damian and Ashton May have had really good years and are batting in front of me. So I’ve had pad rash watching them bat for the last three months. The real credit here is to how hard Damian’s worked and the price he’s put on his wicket. He’s been batting three, four and five for us so he’s come into both some difficult circumstances, and also some games where he’s had to keep the score moving along for us. So clearly he’s handled both those roles really well and we couldn’t be happier for him. If can he continue in anything like the same vein in the New Year it’ll be very deserved.” Copeland says