4th Grade Grand Final: It's a Tie!

Day 1 started with heavy rain, but the boys did a fantastic job to keep the wicket dry, with City winning the toss and electing to bat first in what had become a 63 over per side reduced match.

City's top order looked the goods early at 2-50, with Robert Redpath taking both early wickets, but from there it was all Waratah. The boys gave nothing away for the remainder of the innings, with a great display of tight pressure bowling. Will Palmer (2-9 off 9.1) and Martin Francis (2-5 off 9) put together some fantastic economical spells through the middle of the innings, and were well supported both Matthew Penglaze (2-24 off 10) and skipper Steve Christie (2-27 off 18). At the end of day 1, City were 9-92 with 7 overs left to bat.

Day 2 started with a bang, with Palmer only needing 1 ball to finish off the innings, giving our guys 69 overs to chase 93 for the win. Michael Redpath departed early with the score on 7, victim to a great catch from Freeman. Batting at first drop, Mitchell Hunt was in a non-nonsense mood, getting off the mark with a 6 and getting to 15 comfortably before an inexplicable umpiring decision saw him return to the stands as well. This led to a top order collapse that had us at 4-28.

A steadying partnership between Todd Hearne and Barry Davis (15), and Todd and Michael Skelly (10) had the Waratah crowd feeling a little more secure, as we edged closer at 5-75. But from there disaster struck, losing 4-7 to leave us 9 down, needing 11 for the win.

Toddy did his best from there to get us home, tying up the score quickly, before a great catch at 2nd slip ended the game at 92 each for a rare Tied game. Todd Hearne was awarded Man of the Match for his match-tying 34*, a week after he was a match winner with 69* in the Semi.

Great season guys, these were the best 2 teams all year, so a fitting end, and another piece of silverware for WMDCC!