This game was many moons ago but memories of another clinical Wildcats win remain vivid.
Ironically, the 10am start resulted in Cats actually turning up on time, fizzing at the prospect of rolling to victory then buggering off to the pub to watch the Black Caps. Stand-in skipper Andrew Couper had the services of five ring-ins – Matt and Nick Kennedy, Warwick, Sukhti and George – and the trend of the ring-ins often being better cricketers than the actual contracted Cats continued.
We bowled first and Matt and Couper brought the heat like De Niro and Pacino, with gloveman Tim moved to comment that it was the fastest spell of bowling he had ever experienced, faster even than the time he faced Winston Benjamin in the Headingly nets in the seminal summer of 1988. Wickets fell regularly – with the Fangarangs’ top score a pitiful 25 – as Couper and Sukhti took a tidy 1-16 apiece.
In an inspired piece of captaincy, Couper also tossed the ball to Better Eggleton, who bamboozled the batsmen with a hypnotic array of slower balls to finish with 3-26. George picked up the the big wicket of big hitting Isaac Hunter – these days batting with gloves – before Matt (2-18) returned for his final over and at one stage was on a hat-trick, as an estimated 17-19 expectant Cats packed the slip cordon.
Onslow limped to 139-9 from their 20 overs, well below par on a ground with short boundaries and a lightning outfield. Spirits were already high at the change of innings but, in a brazen challenge to Nando’s long-term captaincy, Couper further sweetened up his troops by producing a tin of Mama Couper’s Muffins ©. Banana choc-chip in nature, the muffins also contained unmistakable traces of vanilla essence and organic cinnamon – it is fair to say this is not Mama Couper’s first rodeo.
All hyped up on sugar, opening bat Warwick produced an explosive (by his standards) innings of 25 off 28 to lay the foundation for a successful run-chase and while Better Eggleton, Nick and Stonnell missed out, Better Worthington (59 off 35) and Hampshire (29 off 16) polished off a six-wicket win with four balls to spare. Special mention to the courage displayed by Alex, who, pre-match, had popped potentially lethal doses of black market drugs to play through a back injury sustained while reaching for his luxury leather wallet at Chicago Bar on Wednesday night.
His toughness proved the inspiration for Brendon McCullum to shrug off a Mitchell Johnson bullet in the other game of cricket on that day. Good job, Cats.