CTU won by 8
runs
It was a
fascinating game of thrust and parry with neither side ever managing to gain
real ascendancy. There was some hostile quick bowling, plenty of nagging
accuracy and a helping of tempting flight but there were also moments where the
two attacks lost some of their control. The batting tactics ranged from
reckless to frugal and the fielding varied between brilliant and frantic. In an
often highly charged atmosphere there were also several opportunities to
witness one of cricket’s more peculiar features – the moments where
gamesmanship and sportsmanship collide over warnings about Mankaddings. Yet all
of these events were merely setting the scene for the final act – the
denouement of the league itself, in doubt right until the very last ball.
A month ago
if anyone with a crystal ball had predicted CTU would win the league they might
well have been met with a wave of indifference. Back then CTU were well clear
at the top of the table and racking up a series of huge wins. This victory over
LWW ensured they did indeed finish as champions but not until after they had
been firmly disabused of any notions of an inevitable procession. Having
seemingly won the league once, at a canter, they then had to win it again, definitively, under pressure at the death of a thrillingly close game.
Their
dominance over the first half of the season should not be disregarded. Far from
it – the large margins of victory they achieved in that period were,
ultimately, what proved decisive in determining the final positions. But in
between times they experienced a genuine scare. They may have built a series of
impenetrable battlements at the front of their castle but they left the back
door wide open and unmanned. JURA very nearly snuck in to steal the prize.
When LWW’s last
pair came in they needed just 14 to win. Even 13 to tie would have been enough
to deny CTU the title as on the adjoining pitch JURA were fulfilling their half
of the bargain by winning in an unfussed professional manner. At that point CTU
were even money at best but, not a moment too soon, they remembered who they
were and what they did best. Trappa took 1 for 3 in his 3rd over, Ty
and Saul picked up a wicket apiece too. They all returned to bowling the
immaculate lines and lengths that, when supported by organised efficient
fielding, make it necessary for any batsman to produce something inventive in
order to score. The quicker men found consistency down the channels on or
around off stump and a fuller , almost yorker length. As a team they began to
communicate, think clearly and stick to a plan. The scoreboard was not
compelling batsmen Danny and Ally to look for the bigger scoring strokes but
they found the shackles very tightly clamped. Being restricted to scampered
runs here and there they subsequently took risks and lost wickets and each time
one fell the momentum seemed to shift a little back towards CTU.
Still, LWW
required only 11 to win off the final over, bowled by slowie AJ. 10 would have been enough for the tie that would satisfy
JURA’s ambitions. It was a stick-or-twist moment – there was a real opportunity
for a decisive killer blow. Maybe a big swing that connected and beat the field
for a boundary. Or perhaps flighting the ball looking to deceive the batsmen in the air and
grab a vital wicket. But neither team blinked and instead LWW edged closer and
closer without moving ahead. A two, three singles and another two left 4 to win of the last
ball but CTU knew that conceding any more than 2 would see their night end in heartbreak.
AJ sent it down with just a hint of a loop, towards leg stump, still pitching
in line. Knowing that soft hands and a sprinted single would no longer be
enough, Danny used his feet to try and meet it but misread the line. The ball straightened off the pitch, the keeper took it above the bails and the fielders' yelps of delight
were heard even before the stumping was completed. It was probably fitting that
they finally won the league by virtue of a piece of tight accurate bowling
because in the final table it was Runs Conceded where they outperformed JURA.
CTU had
needed to regain the focus and discipline that took them to the top. For large
parts of this game they seemed to be trying to pull rabbits from hats instead of relying
on proven science. It was not an implosion by any stretch, and there were
plenty of instances of the ability that made them worthy winners overall but
they were also a long way from the high standards they had previously set. When
they batted Saul and Ty began calmly enough but when Ally took 3 wickets in one
madcap over it seemed to affect the whole team’s approach. AJ and Trappa went
after Ally, whose second over contained 2 sixes but they also lost five wickets
– some caught playing uppishly, others the result of unnecessarily risky
running. That the team fell short of
posting an imposing total owed much to a lack of coherent strategy, they didn’t
seem to know whether to accumulate or dominate. Their last pairing, Matt and
AJ, faced 2 overs from Vee which meant they were limited in their choice of
tactics but there were still signs of muddled thinking in Steve’s final over,
Matt being run out with both batsmen at the striker’s end.
As the teams
changed over news filtered through that JURA had compiled 134 against Ova
Throws. It was a strong statement and it shone a searing light on the 62 runs
that CTU had to defend.
In fairness,
although the closing overs of the match were especially notable for CTU
regaining their composure, their fightback began before then. LWW opened with the
strokeplayer Vee and this could have proved a make-or-break decision. As it happened,
he added 25 with Steve, his threat not entirely nullified but neither had he
given LWW total control. CTU were sharp in the field, Trappa in particular
regularly hitting the stumps directly. LWW’s second pair Paul and Kenwyn posted
a similar total to their predecessors, albeit via a more measured approach. Of
CTU’s quicker bowlers, Trappa was the one who found the right areas most
consistently while AJ was always hard to get away. The others served up the
occasional freebie – not a disaster but enough to relieve some pressure on the batting side. As LWW’s total crept nearer to
its target, that pressure fell on CTU. There was tension in the air. The
bowlers lost their lines and lengths when looking to make too much happen, the shies
at the stumps turned into potential overthrows and the fielders' rallying cries
turned into in-house criticisms. The fightback was on but it may have been
about to boil over.
It needed a
cool, clear headed captain to steady the ship and that’s what CTU had. During
the changing of the last pairs Ty got his troops together and got them singing
from the same songsheet again. They took their time over decisions, talked to
each other instead of arguing and, as if by magic, slipped back into the mode
that had made them title favourites in the first place. Suddenly they were a
unit again and they began to bowl and field as efficiently as the times when they were wrapping up another
routine victory. The scoreboard told differently of course and when the last
over began JURA were watching with their win already sealed. It wasn’t until after the final ball of a dramatic season that CTU could claim to be not chokers but
champions.
PAIR NAME
|
SCORE
|
NET RUNS
|
BOWLER NAME
|
OVERS
|
FIGURES
|
|
Saul
Ty
|
41-3
|
26
|
Steve
|
3
|
2-26
|
|
Ally
|
3
|
5-33
|
||||
AJ
Trappa
|
47-5
|
22
|
Paul
|
1
|
2-8
|
|
Danny
|
1
|
1-11
|
||||
Matt
AJ
|
29-3
|
14
|
Vee
|
3
|
1-23
|
|
Kenwyn
|
1
|
0-16
|
RUNS 117 WKTS 11 NET
TOTAL 62
Inns of : LWW
PAIR NAME
|
SCORE
|
NET TOTAL
|
BOWLER NAME
|
OVERS
|
FIGURES
|
|
Vee
Steve
|
40-3
|
25
|
Ty
|
3
|
3-30
|
|
Saul
|
3
|
1-33
|
||||
Paul
Kenwyn
|
34-2
|
24
|
Trappa
|
3
|
2-17
|
|
AJ
|
3
|
3-19
|
||||
Danny
Ally
|
25-4
|
5
|
||||
RUNS 99
WKTS 9 NET TOTAL 54
RESULT : CTU WON BY 8 runs Umpire & Scorer : S. McVeagh
No comments:
Post a Comment