CACC Stickys home > Winter 2003 Final Grade 7

Summerhill player	score	how out	4s	6s	overs	mdns	wkts	runs	catches	stmp
1. Erby, P.	2	b4	.	.	4	0	0	26	.	.
2. Lee, L.	8	b4	1	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
3. Maconachie, D.	0	lbw4	5	1	6	0	0	30	.	.
4. Kennedy, A.	0	r.o.	.	.	6	1	1	17	.	.
5. Khosla, S.	44	b1	.	.	6	1	0	22	.	.
6. Giles, S.	11	b4	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
7. Maconachie, S.	25	c4 b5	.	.	2	0	1	17	.	.
8. Connolly, D.	9	c2 b9	1	.	6	0	1	23	.	.
9. Rollins, A.	0	b8	.	.	6	2	0	22	.	.
Sundries 3b 6lb 4w 9nb	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
TOTAL : 9 for 122 in 28 overs	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Report:

A glance at the scoreboard in a lot of cricket games shows an apparent easy winner and a clear loser but often this doesn't capture the drama of the game and this final at Waterworth Park against Summerhill was one of those. Our opponents were an unknown quantity as the Round 3 encounter was washed out but we had heard on the 'vine that they were no push-over. CACC won the toss with Jez electing to bat, a decision influenced by having at that moment 7 men on hand as much as by deeply planned tactics. The Duff and the Rock took to the crease fresh from a solid opening partnership in the semi-final, but to-day they found the wicket two-paced and more often as not played and missed and came unstuck at a slow 36 with a careless dab from John to Summerhill's keeper. Greg followed shortly when he uncharacteristically mistimed a hook to be caught in the in-field - 2 for 43 and well behind the clock.

 

Aaron and Jeremy also found runs in very short supply in the face of tight disciplined bowling and when Maverick was trapped in front after a very patient 8 things weren't too crash hot. By now Meng and James had clocked-on and James went out with instructions to stay at all costs. We were all impressed with how seriously he took this advice when his smacked the first ball straight to a fielder at deep-leg but somehow the gods smiled and it cleared him, but not by much. Taking that near-death experience to heart he hit the next delivery somewhat more passionately and it landed a touch short of the Cooks River, but at drinks we still were hardly headlines on 3 for 65 and conscious that drinks often presage wickets falling. But it was not to be this day and Goose settled in to craft a fine 40 and retired while Dutch just went quietly about making sure that he got there as well. With those two digs we were certainly breathing more easily and Cap'n Blood, ever the advocate never intimidated by any judge or jury, was predicting 180 as Roberto the crazy Latin swinger started to find his range with boundaries and swots to leg while Gaston defied the odds to deny the CACC retirees a return to the crease and we reckoned we had a definite sniff with 171 to defend. After being 3-65 at 18, 3-171 at 36 must have had Summerhill wondering what went wrong.

 

Suitably re-fuelled with a lunch of burgers, chips and Coke, the afternoon began as good as it could get with Jez bowling out of his skin to have Summerhill reeling at 4 for 23 and us beginning to think that we just may bring this thing off, but then a stout counter attack came from their middle order and at drinks Summerhill were a clearly ahead on points by 20 runs or so and if they just held their nerve the day was theirs. And so the final session of Winter '03 began with Cap'n Jez showing faith in Macca and Menga to sustain the pressure. Menga was bowling to a very canny plan of never giving the batsman the same ball twice which paid off when he got a tickle to Harvey.J's gloves. Macca calmly ignored a dropped catch to clean up the same batsman with his next ball. The Deer Hunter then swooped with a Ponting-Rhodes run-out and the game had swung back a bit. Danger-man Khosla returned after his big 40 and began where he left off and nerves were taut as a catch off him went down. Big Undies was then brought into the attack and with a neat leg-side in-swinger had Khosla on his way and we were almost there - but still a run-rate of only 7 or so was needed and and Summerhill's last batsman was showing his clearly knew his basics as well as his arithmetic. But the pressure was building and at last the crack appeared with a skier to mid-off and fittingly Jez took it well.

 

A last, and unexpected act however, came from Umpire Gentleman Keith who presented Summerhill's ball to Jeremy as Man-of-the-Match and it was off to the Arms for suitable celebrations and a complimentary round of drinks. A nice touch - many thanks Keith, and the Arms.

 

Sticky moments:

James, hooking successive sixes off his first two balls, Jeremy's critical spell, Greg's round-the-legs bowling of Khosla, Deer Hunter's fine knock and a great side-on run-out. Dropped catches by, well, that's another story best left to another day. (JH 31/8)