Brisbane Champions League – 31/08/2014 Well, after the last few weeks of indifferent weather prior to match days, this weekend was preceded by some fantastic weather – warm temperatures, mild breeze, and plenty of sunshine, which meant perfect conditions out at Whites Hill. An awesome day of cricket with one of the best finishes to a grand final youll ever see.... If you want to put a team in the upcoming summer competitions please call 0414 448 323 or email brisbane@lastmanstands ASAP Game 1 – Brisvegas Blasters vs Screaming Cats Blasters were heavy favourites coming into this match, given their dominance in Brisbane, and the fact that the Cats were of course the wildcard entry from the various Division 2 comps. But the Cats were up for the fight – plenty of bravado particularly from Dillon Lane, grabbed for a quick interview down at third man between overs. With Brisvegas choosing their preferred option of batting first, the Cats bowlers were soon up against the best batting lineup in the comp, Taher Kamrudeen and Tiaan Nieuwenhuizen coming out to open. To their credit, the opening trio of Dillon Lane, Trent Spring & Jackson Larkins kept them quieter than most teams have been able to, Blasters advancing to 73 in the 8th over, before Jackson removed Taher for 43. Rashid Ahmad came and swung at everything before being removed for 18 – and then Tiaan, who’d been pretty quiet until then, with a run a ball 18, took 34 runs off the next 6 balls he faced, and wandered off for a drink. With his bowlers under the pump, Steve Fernie brought himself on, and together with Josh Halsall, he kept the rate down, sending down several overs of spin, and eventually removing Ollie Craig for 29, before Dillon was brought back on to bowl, and picked up Mujeeb Ullah for 8. Helgard De Lange (29*) and Huzefa Kamrudeen (14*) had a few overs left to slog whatever runs they could get, Blasters finishing on 5/194 after 20 overs, with Jackson Larkins the pick of bowlers, taking 2/37. The decision to open the bowling with Anwer Olia proved a masterstroke – the Cats batters were certainly keen for the contest, but perhaps the unexpected slower pace of his spinners proved a bit confounding, as he claimed two wickets in the first over, and would go on to take figures of 4/10, all of them caught. With Rashid Ahmad frothing in at the other end with extreme pace, and collecting the wicket of the dangerous Trent Spring for 10, the Cats were in trouble early on, slumping to 5/23 in the 5th over. But Jackson Larkins and Aaron Mitchell dug in, and ensured that the Cats weren’t going to be embarrassed, sharing in a 41 run stand before Aaron was bowled by Ollie Craig for 12. Dillon Lane was last man in, and certainly wasn’t going to turn down the chance of a good stint at the crease, climbing into the Blasters bowling attack with several boundaries. Jackson was eventually dismissed by Taher for 50, before Dillon finally missed one from Rashid and was bowled for 41, the Screaming Cats all out for 123 after 19.1 overs, sending Blasters through to the final. Game 2 – Woodies vs Tap That Woodies bowled first against Tap That, hoping to make use of the new ball. Travis Bischoff was first to make it talk, removing Daniel Lockhart with a beautiful outswinger first ball of the innings, before going on to be involved in a lengthy battle against Nathan Millard’s outside edge, a number of balls just passing by. At the other end Tom Harrison was troubling all the batsmen with his height and bounce – removing Nick Murphy for 10, and Damo Lean for a duck, so that by the time both openers had bowled out their quotas, Tap That were 3/26, and up against it. That soon became 4/28 when Jacob Lane removed Nathan – but Chris Edge and Dean Goodwin undertook the rescue mission, hitting a series of boundaries off the next few overs, before Ryan Campbell removed Chris for 23, and Jason Bartlett claimed Brendan Lowry for 8. Last man in was Hilton Fletcher, and despite his unprepossessing appearance, he soon began confounding the Woodies bowlers with a series of late cuts, and one massive straight six that confounded absolutely everyone. He finished on 34*, Dean on 26* and Tap That had managed to put 6/116 on the board, a pretty decent recovery from where they were. Trav Bischoff with 1/15 and Tom Harrison with 2/11 were outstanding with the new ball for Woodies, both bowling excellent, controlled spells. Woodies weren’t messing around when they came out to bat, Jacob Harrison and Ryan Campbell getting after all the bowlers early, Ryan hitting 5 sixes on his way to 48 off 21 before he became Hilton’s first victim, following on from his good batting form. Jacob Lane made 7 before Nick Murphy removed him, a well-deserved wicket – but Jacob Harrison (48*) and Chris Stack (16*) made light work of the target, hitting four sixes and three fours between them as they chased it down in the 12th over, and booked their spot up against Brisvegas Blasters. Game 3 – Brisvegas Blasters vs Woodies And so to the main event, the heavyweight clash between the best batting lineup & the best bowling attack in Brisbane, which opened with Blasters winning the toss and electing to bowl first. Woodies sent Jacob Harrison and Ryan out to open, and suffered an early blow, losing Ryan for 2. Jacob Lane joined Harrison, and together they advanced the score steadily, aided by some wayward bowling from the Blasters, with a number of runs coming off wides. But singles are rarely enough, and with the score at 51 after 7 overs, and knowing how strong the Blasters batting lineup was, Jacob Lane decided to put the foot down hard, hooking and pulling 34 off the next 9 balls, to bring up his half century, and get the Woodies batting up and running. Jacob Harrison edged Ollie Craig to be out for 33 shortly afterwards, but new men Matt Zannes and Chris Stack kept things humming along – Matt (24*) rotated the strike, while Chris lumped the sixes at a frightening rate, belting 50* off 14. He in turn gave way Tom Harrison, who kept right on hitting, racing to 53* off 19 – a brutal exhibition of hitting by Woodies, with 19 sixes being hit altogether, most of them titanic blows over midwicket and long on, as they piled on 171 runs off the last 13 overs of the innings. When the dust settled at the end, we had one very battered cricket ball, and a Richie special, Woodies piling up a marvellous 2/222 off their 20 overs. With that sort of carnage going off, there wasn’t much the Blasters bowling attack could do about it, with plenty of head scratching and discussion between players going on! Rashid Ahmad with 1/24 off 4 overs, and Helgard De Lange with 0/28 off 4, were the best of the bowlers for Blasters. Blasters knew they had a mountain to climb, but there’s a real South African flavour to their line-up…could this be the LMS equivalent of the 438 game? Taher and Tiaan walked out to open, and took a few balls to adjust to the Woodies line and length, starting cautiously. They soon opened the shoulders though, murdering anything pitched up, or when the Woodies dropped short, balls disappearing on both sides of the pitch, the Woodies opening quicks Trav Bischoff and Tom Harrison working hard in the opening overs to try and keep the openers quiet as possible. Tiaan eventually retired first for 53 off 26, with Taher following for 50 off 20 shortly afterwards – the Blasters were 110 at the end of 9 overs, and well placed, provided the rest of the batting order could keep going. New man Rashid Ahmad played aggressively as always for 12, Ollie Craig was run out for 3, before Woodies realised that if they rolled the side too quickly, they might have to contend with Tiaan and Taher again. Switching the bowling attack and injecting Jacob Lane, Ryan Campbell and Jason Bartlett into proceedings, a cat and mouse game developed over the next few overs, with Woodies keeping it tight against the Blasters, but the Blasters also taking the odd extra run on the throw back to the keeper, given Woodies unwillingness to run them out. Eventually Mujeeb Ullah tried to be a bit too clever, and was run out for 14 in the 16th over, and at that point, Blasters still needed 80 off 22 balls, surely beyond them unless they could get one of their openers back out there. Huzefa Kamrudeen and Helgard De Lange did the right thing and swung at everything, Huzefa making 35* and Helgard belting 15 before missing a straight one from Jason Bartlett, who promptly cleaned up Anwer Olia 2 balls later. This brought Tiaan back to the crease – 40 runs required, 7 balls remaining. He took a four and a single off the last two balls of Jason’s over, before taking guard for the last over, from Chris Stack. The first one was pitched up and disappeared back over the bowler’s head, 29 off 4. A wide followed, before the next ball, slightly shorter, was murdered over cover and disappeared into the Whites Hill scrub. 22 off 3. A change from Chris, to around the wicket, and he beat Tiaan with the yorker after he backed away, 22 off 2. The penultimate ball was pitched up and hacked over point for 6, 16 needed off the last ball. Unfortunately for Chris, the last ball flew out above waist height and Tiaan climbed into it, pulling it massively over square leg for a no-ball home run, which left the ball to be rebowled again, but this time only 3 runs needed. But it was the same result – flat batted back over long on for a towering home run, to bring up Tiaan’s century off just 35 balls and the most remarkable of victories for Brisvegas Blasters. Commiserations to Woodies – it is not easy being a bowler in this form of the game, I can assure you – and congratulations to all teams involved. If you want to put a team in the upcoming summer competitions please call 0414 448 323 or email brisbane@lastmanstands ASAP
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 23:01:03 +0000
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