The Gladdies certainly had a good toss to lose on day one… inexplicably being asked to bat on a hot Auburn day with a very quick outfield. Play was delayed for some time while half our team, almost all the other team, and even the umpire took some convincing that Peter Hislop Park was, in fact, Peter Hislop Park. But when we finally got under way, conditions couldn’t be better for batting, or at least, couldn’t be worse for fielding. Banjo and Charlie peppered the boundary from the outset, and our run rate never dipped below the 6 we scored in the first over, hovering around the 8 mark for much of the innings, finally settling closer to 7 as we finished on 7/285 off 40 overs.
Charlie, Jimmy and Junior got amongst it, and Funky was cruelly bowled for 49, but it was Banjo’s smashing 86 that laid the foundation for the innings.
I really hope it doesn’t end up affecting our finals chances directly, because this loss really felt like one that we let slip through our fingers. Of course, in my case, this was literally true. Twice.
We didn’t really capitalise much with our three extra overs at the start of day two, only adding 12 to finish on 297. Still, perhaps we could be forgiven for thinking that 298 was going to be a very big ask off 43 overs for the Tigers.
And things went pretty well from the outset. While we conceded the odd boundary early, Gus and Marty bowled at them hard, and at 4/33 the game looked all but over. But, to their credit, the Tigers absorbed some pressure, but dispatched the bad balls, and despite losing a few more wickets, consistently stayed ahead of the run rate, turning quite a few fours into sixes with some power hitting on the legside. AJ bowled tightly without reward, with Brendan doing everything thing he could to sniff out a wicket, but ultimately 297 just wasn’t enough. Some comically bad scoring meant that, technically, they lost a wicket off the last ball of the innings, and consequently, with only ten men present, they only won by one wicket, but with a full 7 overs left, it was more or less academic, and the Tigers showed why they’re coming second.
So, back to the start of the draw for the Gladdies, but well placed mid table.
