40 Overs Semi-final Saturday 11th February
Metalfold Industries Bloomfield Premier 3 Vs United CC
You could tell things were pretty tense as the guys started turning up for our semi-final match up against united almost 2 hours early. The problem was United are a top notch team and have had plenty of finals experience and we haven’t made it past a quarter final in 10 years. But this was a new team with a new attitude and hopefully the skill to get the job done.
Trout went to do the toss but came away with some sort of agreement with Rick that we would bowl. No coin required. The deck on Ongley 11 looked great but the large amount of rain during the week was bound to have an effect on how it played.
Ben opened from the northern end and delivered a maiden to start. Gaz at the other end started with a limp that turned into a hobble that turned into him being replaced by Jase after his 2nd over. Gaz went to the slip corden muttering something about his work's HR department. The slow run rate must have been playing at both batsmen and the change of bowling could have been the opening they were after. Unfortunately for United it wasn't and Jase struck immediately, getting the important wicket of Rick Satherley who had scored 50 odd against us 2 weeks earlier. Ben continued to apply pressure at the other end and on the last ball of his spell Trent Morrell clipped one to Kurtis at square leg who effected a direct hit runout removing Jonnie Newcomb for 1.
Ben’s lack of wicket taking ability clearly had pissed Bishtopher Chrishop off something chronic. As most of the team was congratulating Ben on a tidy spell Bish approached him in apparent disgust. He told Benny that economy was for cars and politics and his lack of wickets made him sick. Obviously keen to back up his words Bish steamed in and bowled Ricky Costa and then claimed the wicket of Trent Morrell with a great catch by Jase in close. Fully fired up now he went back and bowled Thomas Fowell and then caught the outside edge of Matthew Tamblyn’s bat and suddenly United were in all sorts of trouble at 23-6 at drinks or something. PlayHQ was working today but it tells you very little about the game other than the score.
After drinks Pilch opened up from the southern end and was into the wickets straight away. Ben, who had forgotten what taking a wicket feels like was keen to get back into the attack but Bishtopher was after a 5 wicket haul. Unfortunately for him Darryl Newsome wasn’t going to let him have it and Pilch was busy at the other end removing batsmen for low scores. Bish finished with incredible stats of 8 overs 4 for 14.With a change in the bowling imminent Darryl clipped one down leg and was called through for a single. The fact it was in Bishtophers hand may have had something to do with Darryl turning the run down. Unfortunately for Jason Watkins he was too far down the wicket and was run out at the non-strikers end. United all out for 53.
The fact the wicket had not been easy to bat on didn’t seem to worry our batsmen as they went about making a target of 54 look like 254. Echoes of “I’m not changing the way I bat” seemed to follow them on and then back off the field. Jase was bowled early by Matthew Tamblyn and was then followed by Bishtopher who was bowled for 11 by Darryl Newsome. Sanchez (Craig Trim) rocked up and hit a lovely straight drive for 4 before indecision cost him his wicket, out caught. Pilch looked very good hitting a quick fire 16 before hitting one straight to Ricky Costa at square leg. With the ice in the chilly-bin melting at a rate of knots Lazer decided he was the man to finish this early. He was not. Bandara Samarakoon finished him and we were 5-45.
With only 9 runs required and the rest of the team padding up Trout and Kurtis finally put their heads down and got it done. A good day with the ball in hand and not such a day with the bat but in a semi-final all that matters is the result and finally we had one go our way. BLOOMFIELD IS OFF TO THE FINAL!
MVP- Bish 3, Pilch 2, Jase 1.
Accelerate Automotive Bloomfield Premier 4 vs PNBHS 3rd XI
Thanks to CricHQ… scratch that PlayHQ shenanigans and not our performance against Marist the previous week we missed out on a finals berth and ended playing Boys High 3rds for the 10th time? Or maybe it was the 5th? Who knows, but we’ve hung around them so much that people are starting to “talk”, and it does it explain why the P3’s didn’t come down after the match (that or they were celebrating making the P3 final and were incapable of making the trip).
Captain Craig did the business and lost the toss. Not that it made much difference because Boys High always bat first, and we wanted to bowl.
Boys High had a slightly different team this time round big Max was off with the P2’s and a few new boys were having a go to start the school year. The young fellas got off to a solid start putting on 47 for the 1st wicket before Captain Dawson made the first breakthrough. Two more good partnerships followed as the young’uns played some classy shots, ran well and dispatched the odd loose ball to the short boundaries. 54 runs for the 2nd wicket and 65 for the 3rd had them 166/3 scoring at a good clip with overs and wickets to spare. Randy made the key breakthroughs to end the opening partnerships but while we picked up a few more wickets and slowed the run rate a little good batting saw Boys High reach 219/7. Not as high as they were threatening to get but a strong total.
With Dave Watson absent and Greg Morrison dropped or not participating or lurking (can’t remember which) Murrie and George opened the batting. 1st ball of the innings went off the back of Murrie’s bat for 4 and the runs started flowing from there. Boys High bowling had potential, but they were guilty of dropping the ball short too often and not changing their line. Murrie and George were finding the boundary easily, despite saying they’d take it slow, and raced to 82 off 8-10 overs. Murrie continued but then screwed up by getting out for 49 off 51 but he and George (36 off 30) had got us off to a great start. Trimmy played an amazing 4 ball innings, 4 4 4 out, and while Bevan looked good at 3 it was left to Dan and Randy to bring us home. Dan looked the business bringing out those trademark pull shots of his. Randy did his usual and decided that either the ball had offended him and needed to go far away or that the Boys High pavilion needed some extra ventilation which he tried to provide by putting the ball through the roof 4 or 5 times. We thought his 50 vs. Marist was good but this one was a hoot. 50* off 26 balls with six 6’s all of which left various dents in Boys Highs architecture.
Drama to end the match though with Dan on a classy 42 we need 6 to win, 8 to get his 50. Dan hits a 4 so he’s now 46* off 49, 2 to win, a boundary would bring up his 50. He didn’t get it though as a wide ball went to the fine leg boundary to end the match and secure a win with 11 overs to spare.
MVP – Randy 3, John 2, ???
No game next week so we’ll be all hands-on deck to watch the P3’s win the competition.
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