Going into this game in 5^th position on the ladder, we rated our chances reasonably highly against an evenly matched opponent in 4^th placed Johnson Park.  The only thing going against us was the fact that, despite being in strong positions in each of the past 3 years, I was yet to lead the team to a win against them.  Going in with Thommo for week 1 and Gez for week 2, however, gave me some comfort……..but enough about me, we’re here to win!

Winning the toss with a full team at the start gave us the opportunity to send them in on the unforgiving bowler and fielder’s graveyard of Stud Park Reserve. Crookie opened his account with his 3^rd ball having the opener caught at point (1/1 off 0.3). While Crookie and Varun were bowling well, it was felt a change was needed with Dyl coming on to bowl the 8^th with a plumb LB decision to open his account from his 3^rd ball as well (2/34 from 8.3). Dyl managed to get another favourable LB decision a few overs later leaving us in a reasonable position of having 3 wickets inside 12 overs (3/49).  From that point, it became a bit of an arm wrestle with JP grinding its way to 112 when Raj who had bowled a beautiful spell outside off frustrated the batsman into playing at one that went straight to Scotty in the slip/gully region (4/112 from 25). Tom, having also comfortably settled into his rythym, managed to snare another one soon after (5/116 from 27). The runs really dried up after that with JP getting to 5/137 off their 35, a run rate of less than 4 per over thanks to a great fielding and bowling effort from everybody where the energy remained positive throughout.  A special mention to Varun who killed it in the outfield and bowled extremely well without luck to ‘bookend’ the innings.

Opening the batting with the same opening pair for the first time this season, Scotty and Deepak got us off to a steady start before Deepak (7) was unlucky to be caught in front (1/34 from 9). Thommo joined Scotty and proceeded to tease rather than toy with the JP bowlers and fielders before attempting a typically lusty swipe that unfortunately rattled the stumps to be out for 13 (2/56 from 13).  Benny joined Scotty who had seen off the opening attack and together they added 53 in quick time, occasionally flirting with danger until Benny also had his stumps rattled for 17 (3/109 from 23).  Tony came and went before Justin (25no) and Scotty (87no), again the mainstay of the innings, saw us through to stumps in a strong position with a lead of 36 and only 4 wickets down.

Starting week 2 with an all-out spin attack, we had Gez with his probing flat offies at one end and Tom with his well flighted teasers at the other. As it turned out, they paired up for the first wicket in Tom’s first over with Gez taking a smart catch at short cover (6/143)………and again in Tom’s next over with an even smarter and much sharper catch by Gez in the same position (7/143).  There was then a flurry of big shots from both batsmen obviously sensing an early finish which led to Varun taking an eventually well-judged catch in the deep to give Tom his 3^rd wicket of the day (8/170).  Crookie then came on and cleaned up the tail. JP 187 all out with Tom and Crookie taking the honours with 4 and 3 wickets respectively; Dyl got us going early with 2 and Raj and Varun bowled tight spells to keep the pressure on.

Needing another 15 to win and Scotty needing 13 for his 2^nd consecutive ton, we managed to get both over the line with the loss of Justin (28) who had batted well but, more importantly, got to invest some time at the crease. This opened the door for another significant milestone - Tom’s first runs for Knox Gardens…….finally!!  So far this season, Scotty has batted 3 times with a 27no coming in week 2 of round 3 and consecutive hundreds opening the innings in the past 2 games.  As he said to the players after the game, success in this game is more about your mindset and concentration than anything else.  Telling his u16s to think about what they’re doing, ignore natural impulses to hit out and think your way through an innings will lead to more success.  You’d have to suggest that there’s a lot of common sense in that with 227 runs ‘not out’ enough proof to back it up.  Success well deserved Scotty - I trust it helps to ease the aches and pains you feel for days afterwards!

KGCC 5/198 (Scotty 100ret; Justin 28; Benny 17; Thommo 13; Tom 4no) def JPCC 187 (Tom 4/56; Crookie 3/29; Dyl 2/29; Raj 1/16)

It was a great team effort in the field with Scotty again providing the backbone to a solid score that now sees us in 4^th spot and our season’s destiny firmly in our own hands.  In an extremely competitive grade, there are 8 teams in Div 6 with 6 of them now within 1 win of top spot - game on!!

Great wins by all teams with some brilliant individual efforts that should set up the season for all teams.  Bit of a shame we couldn’t spread the ‘Garden Party’ milestones across several weeks with 3 6-fers, a 100 and a clean sweep all occurring in the same round - unbelievable!