Doctors open the season with last ball win

What a way to start the 2016 season!

Making a return to the Southside comp, the Pitch Doctors arrived to Kiawanah Park to face off against Kuraby Lions with new captain Rob Corrigan and a bunch of fresh faces, including Matt Barber, Hassaan Shahid, Tony Pham and Rishi Gupta, while several veterans were unavailable for selection with Andrew Summers and Jo Corrigan being late exclusions.

After rain yesterday, ground 6 was ready to go, with a rock hard synthetic pitch, an infield rougher than an acne ridden teenager's face and boundaries shorter than the distance of Clive Palmer's morning runs. In his first official duty as captain, Rob lost the toss and the doctors were sent into bowl.

After a modest start, the Doctors pulled back with a couple of early wickets, with Nathan Morgan picking up the first wicket of the season. The Lions again began to get away after drinks but spin was the weapon on this pitch with the middle overs being dominated by tight bowling from John Cross and Rishi Gupta. In the end the Lions amassed a total of 225 from their 35 overs, a total that seemed large but on a ground like, this was very attainable.

With the regular openers out, there was a shake up to the order with Abbas Panju and Gus Douglas starting the innings. Given the license to play their natural games, both made solid starts before falling, Abbas unlucky on an illegitimate 7th ball of the over. John Cross and Matt Barber then settled the innings with a partnership that set up the innings, Matt finding the boundary numerous times, both on the ground and on the aerial route, and John playing a consolidating role adding a good 20. After John fell, Zeeshan Ahmad took over the role and Matt and Zeesh formed another handy partnership.

Matt eventually succumbed to an errant shot after the drinks break, making 60-odd, and this brought in Hassaan Shahid to the crease and together the Pakistani duo inched the Doctors closer to the target. Zeeshan picked up a half century before being caught by a freakish sliding catch.

Now, all the while the Doctors had maintained a healthy run rate. With 7 overs to go, it was a run a ball, with 4 overs to go, it was a run a ball and with 12 balls to go, it was 13 required. With Zeeshan's dismissal, as the sun set, Rishi was brought out to the crease with a tiring Hassaan, Rishi however was bowled walking across his stumps and the Captain was left to finish the job with Hassaan. 9 off 6 balls was required. With 6 runs remaining from 4 balls, Rob stepped up to hit a boundary and left 2 runs from 3 balls, the next ball was hit for a quick single, 1 run from 2 balls, a loss out of the question, Hassaan on strike. To add to the theatre, he missed the fifth ball of the over. 1 from 1, and the fielders are all well within the circle, looking to protect that single, but Hassaan wasn't after that single as he launched the bowl over the fielder with a glorious drive to the boundary to pick up an unbeaten 42.

The doctors win by 4 wickets.

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