5th Grade Report vs UNSW - Round 15 |
For those avid readers of fifth grade reports, it may have occurred to you that fifths always seem to have the most ridiculously close games. Narrow escapes with the bat, miracles with the ball, a marvellous catch or just a piece of luck always seems to go our way and we escape. So it has been. So it was. Cam Brown scores a handy few, before the bowlers take over the mantle The equation for the finals was remarkably simple. We lose, we were out. Manly, Sydney Uni win and ND's win with a bonus point, we were out. We win without a bonus point and Sutherland get one, we were out. As it turned out, Manly and Sydney Uni won, ND's lost, but Sutherland won with a bonus point, and this is what happened in our game... We turned up on a nice sunny day to David Phillips, eagerly anticipating the final one-dayer of the year and potentially the final game. The team had a little bit of a different feel to it, with season regulars Sunny Sajdeh, the brothers Selby and Mark 'Lay into Effeney in the report' Fonseka out and 'Buff' Jones, Mitchell 'Inside Cricket' Kleem, the Marvellous one (Brett Marvell) and Dan 'Number two' Mahaffey coming in. Surely a wealth of higher grade experience in both wickets and runs columns would ensure a clinical performance from the stags? It really didn't work that way. At 6 for not many after Millar had won the toss and elected to bat, it seemed the sudden influx of batting talent had not payed off. Kleem got a few before holing out to mid wicket, Avendano had his off-pole rocked by the opener, Marvell got a roughie, edging onto the pad, adjudged LBW. 'Buff' looked great for 25, before going for one shot too many, and gave mid-wicket more catching practice. McKeith and Brown came and went, Brown for a handy knock, McKeith less so. It was down to Millar again to save the Gordon innings. He was out before any saving was done, leaving Effeney, Lake and the Mahaffey to post some scores and give themselves something to bowl to. Effeney and Lake endured patiently before Effeney was caught in front, LBW. Lake and Mahaffey then showed their promise with the bat with a more than handy partnership of forty-odd, leaving the Stags all out 161. The selectors' decision to bring in batting talent was more than justified, with Mahaffey firing with the willow for 20 odd, ensuring his probable elevation to 3 next week. Lake finished unbeaten on 21. So with 161 on the board on a wicket that was settling down as the day went on, UNSW would have really felt in a commanding position. This should have been even moreso after the openers spells failed to yield any wickets, though they were desperately unlucky in the process. Kris Colley also managed to cement his number two rank in fifth grade fielding with a very sharp run out from square leg. With McKeith and Lake replacing the openers, the pressure started to mount, with both bowling very miserly spells, drying up the runs. It could only lead to one thing. Wickets started to tumble, McKeith picking up 3 (full toss being the strike ball - learning from the successful Avendano) and Lake 2 in a brilliant spell of 8 overs, 2 for 9. After McKeith's ten overs were exhausted, it was left to Avendano and Millar to clean up the rest. Millar bowled one of the worst spells I have ever seen from the usually consistent captain, but still managed to pick up 3 wickets ' doubling his tally for the season!! We knew we had to win with a bonus point if we were going to have a realistic chance at finals. With this in mind, Millar bowled what was to be his final over with UNSW in sight of that threshold. Three catches were dropped in this over, as a delighted fourth grade team (fresh from a win) watched on the sidelines. The first, a dolly to McKeith at cover, was put down. The next, a mistimed cover drive to Mahaffey at short cover went in, then out. Finally, a lollypop went to 'Buff' at point. At this stage I, at third man, was walking off the field. Surely 'Buff' wasn't going to drop that one? He did, and our heads dropped. Surely they were going to deny us a bonus point now' Avendano bowled the next over and Buff 'Matt Selby' Jones managed to get the ball tangled up in his arm (gut ' just ask Selby how this works) at slip after an attempted cut. The game was over. The Stags had won with UNSW within 1 run of denying us the bonus point. We found out later that night that ND's had lost and Sutherland had won with a bonus point. That one run really saved a lot of embarrassment for the likes of McKeith, Mahaffey and Jones. Better not drop those sort of chances in the final' So onto St George, number one on the ladder. Take solace, though, in the fact that the last time we clashed we beat them in a thriller. Hopefully it is not as close but the result is the same. Fire up fives! Also, more personally, a big thanks to Matt Nicholson whose leadership and advice have been so appreciated around the club, not to mention the haul of wickets and runs his career yielded. Pat Effeney |
We missed it by that much... or did we?
