~Malcolm S Forbes - (August 19, 1919 – February 24, 1990) publisher of Forbes magazine.
After coming close a number of times, the mighty Yarras Fifth Eleven enjoyed a win on the weekend! Now in the after glow of a tremendous win I can bask in the glory of my teammates heroic efforts….but that would be getting way ahead of the story.
Sunday dawned cloudless and hot. Good news for our not out overnight batsmen in Penny Lane and Connair De Souza, but bad news for our bowlers who were not going to enjoy the same seam friendly conditions as Maccabi had the week before. Our score was a precarious 7/124 and after having a quick look at the rock hard pitch that resembled a road, I also sensed that we had nowhere near enough to defend.
In the opening over of the day, Conrad was softened up with a series of quick balls that were dug in short and then he fell for the sucker punch by misreading the slower ball and spooning a catch to gully for a soft dismissal without adding to his overnight score of ten. Conrad was ropeable at himself for not going on in great batting conditions.
It was now 8 for 124 and things were not looking too good. Enter Cameron McKenzie-Smith – a barrel chested fast bowler who looks like he indulges in wood chopping in his spare time and he wields his bat more like an axe rather than a blade. Without bothering with the triviality of getting his eye in, “Twin Cam” set about swinging his bat like a lethal weapon and crashed the Maccabi bowlers to the boundary repeatedly. All the while Penny Lane was pushing the ball around as he edged closer to his fifty.
Penny Lane thumped a boundary that took him to forty nine and then soon after he guided one square and brought up his fifty. A gutsy innings that was exactly what was required under the circumstances. But it was too good to last. On fifty one, Penny was rapped on the pads, but the umpire gave it not out. The very next ball, Penny was again rapped on the pads and this time he was not so lucky as the umpires finger went up.
Penny Lanes fine knock ends as he exits the playing arena with a gutsy 51.
It was a great blow because Twin Cam was going like the clappers smashing boundary after boundary and the score was starting to mount up. As so often happens, Twin Cam fell soon after for an entertaining twenty one and we were all out for 155. I thought considering the conditions we batted in last week, it was not too bad. Penny however didn’t like our chances after experiencing the pitch first hand – “we are f**ked...the pitch is a road, it is not doing anything” was Penny’s first words upon exiting the arena.
Cameron McKenzie-Smith on the rampage during his cameo of 21.
With the day getting hotter and hotter, no hint of greenness in the pitch and an absolutely cloudless sky – I was starting to worry myself. We really couldn’t take a trick as far as conditions went and as we walked out onto the ground to take up our fielding positions, I also noticed that the outfield – in contrast to last week – was lightning fast. So not only were Maccabi going to get a benign pitch compared to the sticky dog we got, but they were also going to get a wickedly fast outfield which would aid them to score quickly. Things were really stacked against us.
Bobby Fisher bowled the first over which passed by uneventfully without any hint of movement or assistance to our bowlers. Twin Cam took the new ball with Bobby and in his first over he uprooted the off stump of the Maccabi batsman Rothschild. Just the start we needed! We geed ourselves up by reminding each other that we needed to keep taking wickets. I knew that on this pitch and with the large amount of overs left, we basically had to bowl Maccabi out in order to win the game.
The plucky little Maccabi wicket keeper Plavin (the venus fly-trap) joined Ben Jones and the two young Maccabi batsmen dug in to take the score to 1 for 24 when Bobby Fisher removed both Plavin and then Jones in a double strike to have us rocking with delight. At 3 for 29 Maccabi were not off to the start that they wanted or needed. The veteran Schneider dug in with the young tyro Fetter for a critical and frustrating partnership. Fetter playing in an orthodox manner looks every inch a future star batsman. On teh other end of the scale, Schneider seems to hold the bat backwards when he is facing up, but somehow spins it around to play with a straight bat and he frustrated our bowlers with his stonewalling. Their partnership was ended when Jason “Torvill” Endean produced a beautifully disguised slower ball to trap Schneider plumb in front with the score now 4 for 57. The next over Connair bowled pesky young Fetter with no addition to the score and it was now 5 for 57. We were half way there – surely they would capitulate now?
Maccabi dug deep yet again in the shape of father and son combination of Ian Jones and Josh Jones. The fast outfield was killing us as each time they found a gap, be it with a well placed shot or a fluky edge - it seemed to fly away for a boundary. The heat was now starting to kick in and I could see from the faces of our players that they were on the brink of total exhaustion. Maccabi were careering towards victory and there seemed little we could do to stop their victory charge as Ian and Josh Jones were batting with relative ease.
"If we can break this partnership up, then we will clean up the tail surely?" I thought to myself. But how were we going to break this partnership – they looked rock solid? Then something happened that swung the game back in our favour. I started to notice that the younger Jones was starting to struggle with the heat. He would bow down after most balls and gasp for air and his foot work became almost non existent. I thought to myself "this lad is out on his feet - it is only his duty to his dad that is keeping him going". Eventually, he could stand no more and he retired hurt and was escorted off the ground with jelly legs where he promptly collapsed under a tree with water being poured over him to try and revive him.
It was a bad break for Maccabi, but for us, it was the chance we needed. Yossi Herbst came in and departed soon after without scoring making it 6 for 98. Eli Herbst also departed for a duck and then in amongst all this carnage the Maccabi captain Ian Jones who had been holding us up was also bowled out after making a brave twenty. It was now 8 for 104. Eli Paneth came and went for a duck and it was now 9 for 104 and Maccabi were dead in the water…or were they?
Josh Jones through this whole collapse was laying flat on his back under a tree barely moving. He did not look any chance at all of coming back in to bat and we debated this amongst ourselves as each Maccabi wicket fell – “will the kid come back out again?”. With the ninth wicket he picked himself up and came back out with a runner. Jones still looked rather unsteady and we all must have thought that this was all rather token and he was not going to survive for long, but survive he did! In fact, he seemed to bat even better than earlier by flashing his bat at anything wide of his stumps and he hit a few boundaries and all of a sudden visions of the freaky ninth wicket partnership that steered Burnley home to an unlikely win in Round One certainly crossed my mind and probably a few of my team mates too.
Our bowlers had toiled magnificently in the heat and here we were one wicket away from victory and all of a sudden these guys were making a charge. I chased away the negative thoughts by thinking to myself, this Maccabi number eleven batsman is not going to survive long enough for Maccabi to pull off an improbable win – surely one good ball will get him. And that is exactly how it played out. Twin Cam was rewarded for some tight bowling by the Maccabi number eleven spooning a catch right back at him which he held. It was his third wicket and his second catch for the day. Bobby Fisher had picked up 5 for 24 in a wonderful display of line and length bowling and Torvill and Connair picked up a wicket each.
In stifling heat we only used four bowlers with each one of them bowling themselves to a stand still and in Connairs case – the point of sickness - as he had to go off after his spell briefly to get a drink as he had completely hit the wall. The bowling group were heroes in my eyes...pure guts and determination.
We were cock a hoop at having secured our first win for the year. There were heroes a plenty as you can imagine. Penny Lane for his gutsy innings, Bobby Fisher for his five wicket haul, Twin Cam McKenzie-Smith with his cameo of twenty one with the bat, three wickets with the ball and two catches in the field and many others.
On the clubhouse balcony as the boys all enjoyed a well deserved cold beer, Strachany praised the efforts of all the boys in particular his choice of this weeks man of the match Bobby Fisher. He again reserved the encouragement award for me for my efforts in throwing myself around the field like a mad man. If I felt that Strachany was being generous the week before last with his effusive praise for my fielding, then I felt he had gone to even greater lengths this time as I personally could remember at least two guys who were more inspirational in the field – Jason Endean who had patrolled the covers like a miserly cheetah and Twin Cam who had produced a couple good stops and taken two catches – one of which was a very good slips catch while he was stationed at second slip.
In any case, I was delighted to be held up as an example for fielding commitment by my captain and my teammates yet again. I still have a long way to go, but the recognition from my peers makes the hard work seem worth while. It was a tough game...we had the worst of the conditions both weeks - a seamers paradise first week while we were batting and a dead track the following week with hot conditions when we had to defend a small total.
It was a win of pure guts and determination and I am so proud of all the boys and the parts they all played. The bowlers in particular were simply heroic.
I salute them all.
Next week is a new week and yet another two day game...what further adventures does this game have in stall? We all have to wait and find out!
See you all next week!
Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
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