The story isn't over yet!
- Shamsul Kazi
- Jul 24, 2018
- 2 min read
PDCC 176 (45.1) def by Old Dogs 211 (43.1)
H Shahid 47 & 2/24 (5.0), K Chaudhary 26, T Pham 3/24 (7.1), S Prakash 2/17 (3.0), M Boys 2/44 (10)
Cricket’s a funny game sometimes. The highs of win are quickly forgotten by the lows of being slapped around the ground on the way to a loss. With the high of last week, it was always going to be difficult to maintain that rush. But that’s exactly what we were trying to do. It was 4th vs 5th and the winner would be one step closer to cementing their place in the finals, the other all but out of the race with 3rd place Macgregor coming up against Brisbane Legends, who had only one won game this season.
This week saw the return of the usual line up with the return of M Boyd to the keeping position for the first time since a back injury and J Sharma to the opening bat. T Pham would add depth to the bowling stocks with the absence of Barker and Corrigan out this week.
The toss was won, and the choice was to bowl, a decision against the numbers given we’d won every game this year defending a total, however, the idea to capitalise on a shaky batting line up.
And the plan started off well. With Boys and Jain working well in tandem to stifle any chance of a quick start. An early catch by Boyd and then then the early dismissal of the next man in, a batsman who had averaged 90 this season, set the Doctors in good stead. Shahid and Prakash continued the good work of the opening pair and took consistent wickets, leaving Old Dogs at 6/64.
However, a lower order fightback then ensued with the usual combo of Panju and yours truly being neutralised and giving 65 runs in nine overs between the two.
This saw Old Dogs climb above 200 before Pham put a stop to things with three wickets to end the innings at 211.
The chase started poorly with early wickets of Sharma and Panju and then consistent wickets at regular intervals, not even the middle order fightback led by Shahid (47) was enough, the Doctors eventually succumbing to being all out for 176. All but ending a run at the finals unless results went our way in the final round.
Or so we thought. Turns out there’s a twist in this tale and it’s going to come down to the final round as Macgregor was defeated by Brisbane. With Macgregor our next opponents and Old Dogs coming up against Pine Rivers in Dakebin it sets up an interesting fixture with all three teams in the mix to make finals or missing it. The equation for each team is the same. Win.
See you on the 5th.