“When angry, count to four. When very angry, swear.”
~Mark Twain (1835-1910) American humourist, writer and lecturer.
Many days later and I am still trying to contain my anger. It was that sort of day.
Before the start of play, I noticed that my camera wasn’t working for some reason. Afterwards, I discovered that the battery was nearly flat, but other than the shutter not working, everything else was fine. So no photos this week.
We lost the toss and were put in to bat. Nothing new there. Strachany decided to open the batting with Mr Natural to try and get the innings off to a faster start. I had suggested this at the start of the season, but Strachany ever the modest self effacing soul declined. However, today was the day he was going to give it a go and see if he could personally get things moving a bit faster.
The lads too strike and it was obvious that Nat was not himself. I must explain that we had our club karaoke the night before and aside for some very heavy drinking, Nat did not get home until 6:30am…come to think of it, neither did Strachany. So we had two very hung over batsmen out there. Strachany seemed to bat better hung over, whereas Nat looked pale as a ghost. Strachany from the first started to play some dare devil shots, but Mr Natural was looking like he wanted to find a hole to crawl into to die. So it was no surprise when Nat was out soon after caught at short leg to what looked like a bump ball to us on the side line, but was assuredly a catch according to both batsmen out in the middle.
I entered the fray very early, but I felt a strange calm come over me. I felt good – not least because unlike my teammates, I had a full nights sleep, but also because the conditions seemed to be just about perfect. The temperature was a comfortable twenty two degrees with a nice breeze and the pitch had some green in it, but over all seemed to be playing true.
As I was about to take strike I noticed that Thornbury had a short leg in place wearing a helmet, and I thought to myself, “if the opportunity arises, I am going to sweep or pull one straight into him as hard as I can and take him out”. With that sadistic thought I took block. The first ball delivered to me by Thornbury fast medium bowler Gary Newman was a slightly over pitched Yorker that I met with the full face of the bat and caressed it past mid on for two.
That felt nice. It just pinged off the middle of the bat and I could not help thinking that it was nice to get off the mark so quickly compared to last week which took about five overs of struggle. For some reason, I simply knew that the next ball would be short pitched and as it came out of Newman’s hand I was already waiting on my back foot and I swiveled and played a neat pull shot straight to the deep fielder for a single. Three runs off my first two balls…it really did feel to be a good day.
In the coming couple of overs, I only played one false stroke and that was off Newman who saw me coming down the pitch to him (for some reason I premeditated a charge) and he dropped it short in front of me as I advanced to drive. So I quickly checked my stroke rather swinging through the line and the ball popped up and floated over the bowler and just out of Mid On’s reach. A stroke of luck as I should have gone through with the stroke as it would have sailed half way to the unguarded boundary if I did.
I did have another awkward moment off the same bowler when a ball struck my pad at the same time as I swiped the top of my pad with the bat creating a noise that sounded similar to an edge because of the timing and the ball ricocheting to the right of short leg who took a spectacular diving catch as the Thornbury players celebrated what they were certain was a bat pad catch. I stood my ground nervously wondering if the umpire saw my bat hit pad and not the ball. Luckily, he did and gave me not out.
Coming on from the other end was the left arm bowler Adrian Blackburn who not only bowled accurately, but swung the ball away at a reasonable speed. I played and missed a number of times, but also played some reasonable shots that unfortunately went straight to fielders.
I still had time to play a nice cut shot off Newman, but unfortunately only got a single for my efforts. I was playing an over from Blackburn and starting to feel more and more comfortable when Blackburn finally dished up a widish full delivery that was ripe to be smashed through the covers. I play a big cover drive, but the ball snuck under the toe of my bat, onto the ground and then commenced its upward trajectory to the keeper. A bump ball. So I was unconcerned when the Thornbury players appealed enthusiastically for caught behind. Surely the umpire would be intelligent to realize that any ball passing under and catching the toe of the bat can only go down first before going up?
Apparently not, because after a pause of a few seconds the umpire gave me out. At this point I yelled down the pitch “you have to be kidding…it has come off the toe of the bat into the ground and then to the keeper!” A player can be cited for showing dissent, but I kept enough control so as not to go overboard. Strachany then cautioned down the pitch “No VB” as a reminder that if I carried on any longer, I would surely get into trouble. However, I had made my point and I started my walk off muttering curses under my breath.
Ben McLean passed me as the next man in and set about with Strachany to building a decent foundation to our innings. Ben is a guy who has worked diligently on his game and has improved with each year at the Yarras. A padlock defense and the ability to find gaps are the hallmarks of Ben’s game and this day he did not let us down. With Strachany in season best form, the two of them put on a valuable partnership of fifty five with Strachany the aggressor and Benny McLean dropping the sheet anchor.
Strachany was eventually out for a highly entertaining forty eight. Thornbury appealed for caught behind and the umpire demurred only for Strachany to walk when in all likelihood he would have been given not out. No one could ever doubt Strachany’s sportsmanship, however, later events would cast a different light on this selfless and honest act.
Strachany’s forty eight was a far from chanceless innings, but having said that, after all the bad luck Strachany has had so far this season, it seemed only fitting that he would finally get a slice of luck go his way. One incident summed up Strachany’s innings to a tee. Strachany played an awful shot that ballooned straight to the fielder. While the ball was in its arc, Strachany started running just in case the catch went down. As luck would have it, the Thornbury fieldsman dropped a sitter, but if that wasn’t enough, Benny McLean had been watching the ball and had not responded to Strachany’s call and both batsmen were virtually at one end. While Strachany was lucky to be dropped, surely the fieldsman would make amends by running him out by virtually the length of the pitch?
Don’t bet on it!
The fieldsman in his enthusiasm, threw his return wildly and no one from the fielding team could get a hand on it – so not only had Strachany avoided being caught or run out, the ball flew away for four over throws handing Strachany five runs for his horrible shot!
When it is your day – it is your day!
Benny McLean continued on with his carefully crafted innings, but unfortunately the unlucky Nashi Alam was run out for a “diamond duck” (where the batsman does not get to face a ball). Craig Nott strode to the crease looking very confident as he joined Benny to push our score further along. Soon after, disaster struck when “Black” Nott pulled his quad muscle badly thus necessitating that he had to bat on with a runner. Strachany went back out to do the honours. Craig Nott then smashed a glorious six to show that while he could not run, he was still deadly with a bat in his hands. Things were going well when yet another umpiring blunder swung the momentum of the game. Craig played a shot away for a comfortable single. The fieldsmen threw the ball to the bowlers end and the bowler whipped off the bails with the Thornbury players erupting in an ecstatic appeal.
The umpire looked up and saw that Craig Nott was still standing at the strikers end and that Ben McLean had joined him at that end…so in perverse relief at how simple this decision seemed to be, he gave Craig run out by the length of the pitch. What the umpire had forgotten and seemingly the Thornbury players as well, was that Craig had employed Strachany as a runner and Strachany was NOT out of his ground when the bowler broke the stumps, but was past the stumps and in by nearly two meters. It was clearly a massive gaffe and the umpire realized he had made a mistake within seconds of making the decision– but the umpire did not reverse his decision and even more disappointing, the Thornbury captain Blenkiron made no attempt to recall Craig Nott as he trudged disconsolately off the ground after making an impressive and comfortable fifteen.
Remarkably, that was two weeks in a row that Craig had been given out incorrectly after being given out caught from a chest high full toss against nationals the week before. Talk about rough luck. Notty and Benny had put on twenty nine runs together before their innings was terminated in this unfortunate manner.
Timmy Miller came in and immediately started turning over the strike and playing smart cricket as he is capable of doing. Then as the partnership with Benny reached nineteen, Tim edged one through to the keeper in much the same manner as Strachany, and like Strachany, was given not out. Just like Strachany again, he honourably walked. Ian “Chips” Pringle came and went quickly and then Vishnu entered the fray and made an immediate impact smacking a two and then a boundary. Vishi then smashed one in the direction of square leg that was absolutely flying. A foot either side of the square leg fieldsman and it was four runs all the way. However, the ball unerringly slammed into the hands of the Thornbury fieldsman who held onto a super catch.
Benny McLean was eventually bowled out in the last over trying to smash quick runs for a stoic thirty one and our innings ultimately closed on 9/159 after our compulsory closure of innings at the forty five over mark.
I felt that we needed about fifteen runs more, but also reasoned that if this season was any form guide, Thornbury had struggled to get to one hundred most weeks and had a top score of 146. So I was quietly confident that we should be able to route them.
In his first game for the Yarras, Vishnu took the new ball and almost immediately had the Thornbury captain Blenkiron caught behind with a big nick that flew almost to first slip where keeper Timmy Miller took a splendid catch. Amazingly, the same umpire that had given me out incorrectly, Notty out incorrectly and had blundered on both Strachany and Timmy’s decisions where both saved his blushes by walking again was in tehs potlight when he gave the decision not out much to our chagrin. Timmy Miller is very non demonstrative sort of bloke as you would expect from someone who is a university lecturer by profession, but he was so incensed by the umpires huge mistake that he turned to Blenkiron and in a loud voice that was just a few decibels below shouting said “why don’t you walk?”
The batsman has a right to hold his ground of course – but after two of our batsmen had walked and two others had been given out incorrectly, a bit of honour would have been appreciated. In any case, in his next over Vishnu trapped Thornbury opener Pat Barry LBW for three for his first Yarras wicket. Thornbury batsmen Hagan and Viner both dug in for a critical match defining partnership.
Viner batted doggedly for the most part as opposed to Hagan who played a more aggressive game with some risky stroke play. I lost count of the amount of times Hagan planted his foot straight down the pitch and lofted the ball back over the bowlers head each time somehow avoiding the mid on or mid off fieldsmens clutches by centimeters. The one time Hagan did loft the ball directly to a fielder, the normally reliable Strachany dropped what he would normally catch with his eyes closed on any other day.
We were rather flat for most of the afternoon, but we seemed to grow flatter and flatter as the Viner and Hagan partnership grew. At 2 for 118 with both batsmen in control, the game looked to have slipped beyond our grasp. Thornbury only needed a further forty two runs and with plenty of wickets and overs in hand – a Thornbury win started to look like a formality.
Suddenly, “Chips” Pringle lured Viner down the pitch and floated they ball past the Thornbury batsmans despairing swipe to have him cleverly stumped by the alert Timmy Miller. 3 for 118 and we suddenly awoke from our torpor. Within minutes, Sandosh brilliantly fielded the ball and rifled his return to Corky Miller who whipped off the bails with the batsman out of his ground. 4 for 121 and we could sense panic starting to creep into the Thornbury camp.
I kept thinking that we had to somehow get rid of Hagan who had brought up his fifty and was still there. We needed to slightly drop back the mid on and mid off and put two excellent catchers there as I knew Hagan could not resist going for his pet shot. Ben McLean seemed to read my mind as he called out to Nashi at Mid Off to switch with him at cover. Within two balls of the switch being made, Hagan again lofted Chips Pringle and this time Ben McLean got underneath the skier and made no mistake taking an excellent catch. Nice one Benny!
5 for 127 with twenty three runs to get for a win and Thornbury were starting to wobble. With some near suicidal running between wickets and some close the eyes and swing stroke play, Thornbury added a further sixteen priceless runs to get the score up to 5 for 143 and again looked safe. But the Mighty Yarra Fifth Eleven were not dead yet and as so often has happened this year, we conjured another wicket to keep the game alive when Thornbury batsman Taylor was caught and bowled by Benny McLean.
6 for 143.soon became 7 for 144 when Cummings was caught by Vishnu at mid wicket from the bowling of Strachany. Sixteen runs to win for Thornbury and three wickets left for an unlikely win for us. We had really ramped up the pressure and were suddenly buzzing in the field when half an hour earlier it was more like a morgue. The very next ball Strachany trapped Thornbury batsman Collier LBW for a golden duck and it was 8 for 144.
Still sixteen needed and we now only had to get two wickets to win. It was last weeks game repeating itself. Surely this week we could pull off the win? Blackburn joined Newman out in the middle and neither of them looked capable of surviving for very long. Surely, one mistake and we would then have a crack at the number eleven. They swung and missed. They swung and connected scoring some unlikely runs. A mistake had to come? They edged closer and closer when all they needed was four runs to win with nine balls to bowl. Strachany then bowled his only bad ball – a full toss that had “slog me” written all over it and Newman threw his bat at it and connected sweetly much like the Nationals number eleven batsman had the week before. I knew it was four the moment it left the bat.
Sunk by tail enders yet again!
The forth nail biter this year we had lost and the third by tail enders getting the winning runs. Devastation again, but unlike last week where I felt we could not have done much more, this week we did not really play well and the umpiring absolutely gutted what chance we had of winning the game.
The Thornbury lads showed themselves to be a lot more forth coming than the Nationals lads from the week before by coming to our bar and sharing post game drinks with us.
We play them all over again at our home ground this week in a quirk in the fixturing.. I really hope we can turn the tables on them and hopefully get a better rub of the green with the men in white.
More next week!
Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA
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