Knight and Day between Doctors and Mater Hill
- Shamsul Kazi
- May 28, 2017
- 3 min read
PDCC 7/204 (35) def Mater Hill 10/104 (24.1)
G Douglas 107, A Panju 50
S. Kazi 3/17 (3.1), S Prakash 2/25 (4)
We’ve got nothing but endless love in this match report, but before I get there let’s start at the start.
After the week off due to wet weather, it was a perfect day at Marchant Park with a vanilla sky this time round. Though a 50% chance of rain later in the day still loomed over the game.
With the rain man dancing in the corner and the fresh green top ready to go after a week of no cricket, Captain Corrigan successfully won the toss and sent the undermanned Mater Hill into the field.
Like Maverick and Goose, the new opening partnership of Douglas and Panju went out to open and it was nearly all over on the first ball with a convincing appeal after Douglas was trapped in front. However, Valkyrie was on his side and from there the two played without limits as they accumulated runs without much risky business, though both men received a life along the way to their respective 50s just before drinks.
It was like watching lions for lambs as the two went at seven an over until Panju was the first to slip up. Losing his wicket with the first ball after drinks, as he gave catching practice to the man at point.
The bowlers were simply collateral as Douglas had all the right moves as he went on to make his second century in the space of a couple of weeks and the crowd was losin’ it when he did.
In a good position, with a handful of overs to go, the signal was sent out to turn on the taps and seal the good work. The others came in and played their parts with the Doctors finishing on 204. The target that wasn’t quite mission impossible, but with 5.87 an over required, it made Mater Hill the outsiders.
Opening the bowling was Brad England, back for his first game since last winter, and the openers had their eyes wide shut by the looks of it as they had difficulty connecting bat and ball. Mater Hill tried to put up a fight and they had a few good men, but with Corrigan taking their first wicket for a mere 13 runs it was always going to be an uphill battle.
With the Doctors on top, it was a hostile environment for the batting team to walk in to and it wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that it was real war of the worlds out there (give me this one).
At drinks the equation was simple with Mater Hill requiring 148 runs from 108 balls with six wickets in the sheds. The Doctors had the psychological edge with not only a strong verbal game, that often bordered on bemusing, but also by regularly picking up wickets. The cocktail of bowlers proved effective with Corrigan, Shahid and Pham picking up one a piece while Prakash took two.
There was a moment where the impossible didn’t appear out of reach (er, alright now I’m stretching it), as the Doctors fell behind the over rate and Kazi was brought on to speed up the game, but ended up giving away 11 in one over, and Josh Saul stood up as the final defence blasting the ball to oblivion several times. However, the resistance was quickly squashed with by far and away the best piece of fielding of the day, from the man (the legend) of the day, as Douglas hit the wickets with a Bavuma-esque throw from mid-on and the last samurai fell to an off spinner from Kazi that went through the gate and took the top of leg, giving him his third wicket and ending the Mater Hill innings on 104.