Karori Wildcats 137/10 (18.2), K Thomson 42 (33), Bobby Florkowski 25
Victoria T-Swifts 136/8, D Croft 3-12
Author: Blair Bradley
Having lost the toss and being told to bat, the Wildcats top order was established, and with a few shadow swings of the bat to get the muscle memory going from 8 months ago, everything was confirmed to be as normal and fully operational ready for another season. 12 balls later, with 9 runs on the board, the top 4 were back in the pavilion and the Wildcats were well and truly in crisis mode ready to go to DEFCON 5.
Alex and Kurt then set about the first rescue mission of the season, before Alex was caught for a noteworthy 16. Nando then came into take up the challenge, and quickly went the the way of the top 4. This brought Bobby to the crease, who joined Kurtly in applying some more rational, but forceful, cricket shots to some bowling that was asking for it. This allowed us to flop over the psychologically intimidating 100 run mark, and the alert level was lowered to DEFCON3 and a half. Bobby departed for a strong 25. Dan (1 off 10) and strong renew recruit Andy (13 off 26) then supported Brendan McCullum’s 3rd brother Kurt through to the 18th over. Crucially, this allowed Extras to compile a well earned 30 during this time.
Meanwhile, Rupert was being taken through a thorough thrown down session in anticipation of his striding to the crease for just the 2nd time in 2 seasons. When Rupert made it out to the crease, he promptly got off the mark with 1. This left Brendan McCullum’s 3rd brother Kurt on strike. Unfortunately, Kurt looked on Twitter and fell victim to the hoax that his brother Nathan had died…..so his innings came to end for 42, not before he had dug the Wildcats out of a very big hole. The Wildcats would have to defend 137 on a lopsided field with a boundary that started at silly mid off.
In humid conditions, the Wildcats opening duo of Nando and Tom kept the openings honest with a mixture of intent and movement. Henk, George and Bobby then came on to keep the TSwifts in check.
At this point in the innings the TSwifts then gave up their one honest call and walked to a caught behind that was not appealed for. Hot spot subsequently revealed the guy didn’t actually hit it – but at least the batsman left with his integrity intact, but unfortunately his judgement was now being called into question.
At this point skipper Alex decided to pull the trump card of using Crofty with the bigger boundaries. 12 rotations of his arm later, and Crofty had 3 wickets and the game had swung back into the Wildcats favour. The TSwifts had now lost wickets consistently without anyone pushing on – would that hurt them? 9 off 6 would do it for the TSwifts…..
Tom would bowl it. He would only need 5 balls and the TS would run themselves out. The Wildcats had found a way to win.
Chahooo! See you next week for the inaugural Sphinx Trophy match against the Karori Stonecutters.