Asbestos Surveys Bloomfield Vs Maw Haws.
Our last game of the round robin was against the undefeated Maw Haws. It was a must win for us if we wanted any chance of making the playoffs in the baffling top 4 playoff system that we have this season. We haven’t beaten Maw Haws in the 6 years I have been a part of Bloomfield so we knew that this was going to be a tall order. However, for the first time this season we had some of our best players available on the same day which allowed us to put up our strongest team this season.
The deck looked great for batting so when Maw Haws won the toss they elected to bat. Ben and Gaz opened the bowling and somehow both teams would have felt like they were on top. The batsmen looked very edgy so we felt a wicket was just a moment away but the problem was those edges were finding their way to the boundary. Gaz was the first to make the breakthrough removing Greg Lough, LBW, for 6. That brought Craig Harrison to the crease and then both he and Nathan Smith Started to find the middle of the bat.
Ants pulled Ben from the attack and replaced him with Craig Trim but he was unable to find the length we were after and other than a missed caught and bowled opportunity, he was unable to make any further inroads. After a very tidy opening spell Gaz was replaced by Craig "The Destroyer” Dawson and James Pilcher came on to replace Craig Trim at the other end. The Destroyer wasn’t up to destroying much today but he did keep the pressure on the batsmen while James looked dangerous at the other end. Only 3 balls into his first over James bowled Nathan Smith for 33 but a good partnership between Craig Harrison and Ryan King got them through to drinks on 110/2.
With an imposing total at drinks, we were going to have to take some early wickets if we wanted a target of less than 300. Kurtis had replaced Craig Dawson and had found a bit of rhythm and Pilch was still bowling well. It took until the 25th over before the breakthrough came. Ryan King hit a ball from Pilch straight to Kurtis at cover and was out for 40. That got the boys excited but not as much as the next ball from Pilch that bowled Paora Pomare for 0. The intensity in the field picked up again but with Craig Harrison still unbeaten and Phil King just arrived at the crease we still had some work to do. It didn’t take Phil long to get into his work hitting our bowlers back over their heads and racing through to the 40s. Gaz and Damian both had a go at removing either batsman, but the runs just kept flowing. Ben came back on to finish his spell and was lucky enough to catch the outside edge of Phils bat with his first ball which Lazer caught behind the stumps.
Craig was still going strong at the other end bludgeoning Ben and Gaz around the ground. Ben was able to grab the wicket of Rick Brosnan in the 38th over before Craig retired hurt on a well earned 102 in the 49th over. Maw Haws finishing on 254/6 off 40 overs.
With a target of 255 its fair to say we had our work cut out for us. Aaron and Gaz got us off to a good start finding the fence a few times. Aaron hit the ball into someone’s vege garden where it remained lost for 20 minutes. Perhaps it was the stoppage in play, but he was out not long after it was found caught behind off the bowling of Phil King. Gaz hung around for a bit using more of his pads than his bat before bludgeoning a few boundaries before he was bowled by Phil King for 14. That brought both James Pilcher and Kurt Poppe to the crease. The batting from that point on was sublime. Pilch looked in form from ball one but Kurt who was carrying an injury from Friday nights club training was struggling to get his front foot going. As the innings went on the batting just got better and at drinks, we found ourselves with a very competitive total of 142/2. Suddenly it was Maw Haws having to defend.
Maw Haws found themselves having to defend the boundaries on a very fast outfield but in doing so allowed Kurt and James to keep the strike rotating. Nothing they did seemed to work as both batsmen passed 50 and continued on. Kurt went into his big hitting mode and raced through to his first ever century. After coming so close over the years it was great to see it finally happen.
Eventually the breakthrough came for Maw Haws with Pilch skying a ball from Phil King to be caught by Craig Harrison behind the stumps. James was out for 75 and that ended Bloomfield’s highest 3rd wicket partnership and potentially the club’s 2nd highest ever at 208. With the score at 247/3, Trimmy and Kurt saw us home. Bloomfield winning 3 down in the 34th over.
Unfortunately, the Manawatu Foxton/United game didn’t go our way so we miss out on the play offs finishing 4th equal with ManFox but missing out on run rate. It’s hard not to feel a little ripped off this season with things out of our control, but this week’s win proves that the work the boys have put in has paid off. We now have a plate semi-final with Dannevirke black on March 12th with the weekend of March 5th set aside for some friendlies. We book ours post season.
MVP- Kurt 3, James 2, Gaz 1
Comments