STAYING ALIVE

18 February 2010

LLOYD ILETT

HAMILTON’S hopes of moving into the provincial grade of Melbourne Country Week are still alive after its nail-biting victory against Ferntree Gully on Tuesday.

Having lost its opening match to Warragul on Monday, a win was needed.

After inspecting the wicket the selectors made a bold decision in leaving two batsmen out of the team with Nathan Grant and Mick Russell being the unlucky duo.

The selection panel felt that the wicket would take spin and the plan was to play three spinners in Jarryd Wakeling, David Heeps and Drew Deary.

As ever, the best laid plans go astray and Ferntree Gully won the flip of the coin but sent Hamilton into bat.

Wakeling and Deary took strike and after playing out a maiden for the first over, Wakeling watched as his partner was caught at second slip from the first ball he faced.

This brought Hamish Bailey to the wicket and after his golden duck the day before, the team held their collective breaths as he safely played out the rest of the over.

After two overs, Hamilton was still to register a run.

The batsmen settled into their roles and the runs began to flow as they looked to gain an advantage over the opening bowlers who were delivering a diligent line and length.

Wakeling was more circumspect than his skipper early in the innings but he soon overtook him as he played with more freedom.

The second wicket stand came to a halt at 95 when Wakeling was stumped for 53 from 65 balls in a great return to form with the willow.

Bailey had changed the first day batting order to have Solomon Mire come in at No.4 but he was bowled second ball for one and the loss of two quick wickets saw the match swing back to Ferntree Gully.

Michael Brilley added 15 to his first day 49 before he was also stumped trying to hit Costick to the fence and Hamilton had slumped to 4-117 after 30 overs.

Grant Waldron joined his skipper and the two looked to rescue the side by playing their natural games.

Bailey brought up his 50 from 87 balls and it included five boundaries, but his younger partner was also playing very well as he turned the strike over with each ball he faced.

They added 70 for the sixth wicket and were only parted when Bailey misjudged the strength of a fielder’s arm and was run out for 77. His 147-minute knock included seven boundaries and came from 106 balls.

Disaster befell Jamie Fenech when he was caught by the keeper from the very next ball.

Tom Sharp safely negotiated the hatrick ball and then combined with Waldron to add 42 from only four overs as the young keeper/batsman took the long handle to the bowlers to score 28 from only 19 balls.

His innings enabled Hamilton to gain valuable momentum in the last eight overs as the side finished on 9-257 thanks to a wonderful run a ball innings of 57 from Waldron that included two fours and a six.

He made sure that he was able to put bat on ball for each delivery and took at least a single from most balls.

Hamilton took to the field after lunch with an air of confidence and that was soon turned into wickets as Callum Kanoniuk and Brandon Ross (surely the youngest ever opening bowling pairing in Hamilton’s long Country Week history) dropped straight onto a line and length that tormented the opening batsmen.

Ross struck in his first over to have the dangerous Dunlop caught behind by Sharp for two and Ferntree Gully was 1-3.

Ross was at it again when in his fourth over, when he trapped Gaunt in front of his stumps for eight and the opposition had slumped to 2-23 from eight overs.

Hamilton was on top at 3-37 when opener John Levell was run out by Jamie Fenech, making it look all too easy.

From there Ferntree Gully fought back thanks to a brilliant innings from Chris Brittain, who threatened to take the match away from Hamilton as he plundered 71 from only 59 balls, smashing four boundaries and four towering sixes.

He and his partner, Burgman, added 95 for the fourth wicket with Burgman scoring only 16 of them.

Brittain was trapped in front of his stumps by Mick Brilley just as he was on fire with the willow.

The biggest danger of the Ferntree Gully team was back in the pavilion and Hamilton was very glad to see the back of him as he had made 99-not-out on the first day after making 200 last Saturday back in his local competition.

The fifth wicket fell at 147 with Heeps trapping Vozzo lbw for five.

Burgman remained but his scoring was tempered by the bowlers who refused to allow him to free his arms and swing across the line.

He was joined by Ben Morris, who was in the mood to open the game up by scoring quickly, and the pair soon had the scoreboard ticking over.

They had added 87 for the sixth wicket and appeared to have taken the match from Hamilton’s grasp when Morris was bowled by Solomon Mire for a stunning 45 that came from only 39 balls, but from there Hamilton struck back as Kanoniuk was brought back to bowl his last two overs.

With the score at 6-246, and with two overs remaining, Kanoniuk struck when he had Bradbury caught by Brilley. From the next ball Kanoniuk cleaned bowled the one man who held the fate of Hamilton in his hands, Burgman, for 69 and he was on a hatrick at 8-246.

The young opening bowler’s 10-over spell had cost only 29 while he grabbed two wickets to be the best of the attack.

Logan was given the job of bowling the final over with Ferntree Gully needing 11 runs to claim victory, but Logan held firm with his line and length and not only took a wicket but restricted the batsmen to only five runs from it.