sidelined

It was the last day of the season. The mighty Terrigal-Matcham Bellbirds eighth grade team knew the mission. If we were to have any chance of making the finals (after inclement weather robbed us off some valuable competition points) we had to win outright.

8 overs in the day we had first innings points and declared 2 runs in front. It was up to the other team.

They fought hard. One of their openers hit a nice 63 and was well supported by cameos from the top order. For a while we couldn’t buy a wicket. The ball wouldn’t swing and lofted shots always seemed to land in between the fielders. It looked grim but we fought our way back. After 49 overs we had ‘em 6 for 162 when they declared.

Walking off the field I wasn’t sure what score we had to chase. As I went to check the books as I’m the skipper and started thinking about the batting order, George came over and asked if he could open. Normally he bats around 6 but I thought, “Why the hell not? Good technique and a great eye.”

Now, in eighth grade there is a maximum of 80 overs in a day’s play. Checking I found the equation was 161 runs in 23 overs (as 57 had been bowled that day) at a run rate of 7 per over. A tall task it seemed but I reckoned out guys could give it a shake. Our foes bowling wasn’t that terrifying and it was a great batting pitch. It was a synthetic pitch in the middle of an Aussie Rules ground. They cover the pitch with sand during the winter. What this means is in summer, the sand really scuffs the ball. You get a little swing with the new ball but after about 15 overs, the batsmen have it all their way.

Out strode George and Ben to open the innings. The first over saw us 0-5. The second 0-7. The third 0-13. Then after the fourth, we were 0-26. George had decided to take the game to the opposition and proceeded to blast the attack all around the park. I tell you no lies in that it was a Gilly like innings. We lost the odd wicket along the way but the run rate was sky rocketing and hope was in our hearts. Eventually George fell with the score 4 for 144 in the 17th over. He’d hit a spanking 81. There 6 overs left and we only needed 18 runs.

The 18th over seemed like a breather. Only 4 runs coming off it. And then in the 19th, new batsman Mike hit three sixes to bring us home.

We had scored the outright win. An amazing 171 runs in just 19 overs. We got the total doing 9 runs per over.

Alas, the rumour is results have not gone our way and we may be out of finals contention. But as skipper, I couldn’t not be more proud of how my lads fought today. To a man, we went out to play hard and win.

At the club, there is a white board that is used to record the round’s results. For eighth grade this afternoon, someone had simply written “Smashed ‘em.”