Sunday's game against Octopus turned out to be a real nail biter! The game would also give the winner an important edge going into a playing the same opposition the following weekend.
After losing the toss, the opposition put us in the field to begin a match that would turn out to be one of the most exiting of the season. Dekock and Shofiq opened the bowling attack. Shofiq again showed his class by dismissing Harsh for only 4 and ending with 1 wicket for 2 runs from 4 overs. Dekock balled with great heart and the opening batter Rocky edged the ball to slip. We all cheered and went up, the batsman did not walk, so we appealed to the umpire, who just looked away. Stockinger vocally showed his disgust - on a regular basis.
Bielby and Curtis took over, tying down the batsman at one end whilst Curtis was hit high, wide and handsome. Bielby ended Smith’s time at the crease by bowling him clean. He continued with his allocated eight overs and ended with 1-22. Howden assisted Bielby from the other end, both keeping the run flow down, and in his third over Howden struck gold, taking the wicket of Rocky who had scored 107. Thankfully Shofiq was on the boundary to take a very important catch. Howden took a further wicket in his next over, finishing with 2-39. Then new kid on the block Hoeksma was given a chance with the ball. He struggled to find his line in the first over but then he settled in and bowled well. In the fourth over, Alpesh hit and missed the first 2 deliveries and then he lost his cool and drove at a ball. Ross positioned himself right under the ball and gave Hoeksma his first wicket for Grace's. He ended with figures of 1-23.
Shofiq and Dekock came back on to clean up the tail-enders. Dekock took a wicket in his fifth over when Howden caught Kemp. Dekock went on to claim two more wickets, ending with 3-46. Shofiq continued troubling the batsmen and claimed another wicket. White was clean bowled for 6. Shofiq ended with figures of 2-25 and Octopus scored 209 after their allocated 40 overs.
After a splendid tea the batting order was confirmed, and Grace's were now ready to chase a reasonable total. Swinburne and Camberwell opened the batting with Rocky and Ogilvy opening the bowling. The bowling pair bowled a good line and length which kept the Grace's batsmen under control, their first 10 overs only costing 29 runs. Grace's really needed to pick up the pace if they were to stand any chance of winning the match. Harsh and White took over from Rocky and Ogilvy.
Camberwell then exchanged his bat and took the bowling on. He struck a couple of great boundaries while Swinburne opted for a more steady start. Harsh made the first breakthrough by bowling Camberwell for 41. Hardisty then came in to bat, but his time at the wicket was short lived. Syd and Alpesh took over the bowling attack. Hardisty scored a brilliant four and looked like making a big total, but then Syd made his mark by taking his wicket. At this stage Grace's needed to score about seven runs an over to win. Things didn’t look that good. Stockinger knew he had to bring the run rate down and that he did, so with Swinburne, they took the bowling on and smacked the bowling attack all over the park. Octopus then opted to bring back their main bowlers to restrict the two in-form batsmen, but it never worked. Swinburne passed 50 by smacking a cracking four and went on to score a magnificent 69 before falling victim to Ogilvy. He had set the foundation for the team to win.
Bielby joined Stockinger in the middle and scored a quick-fire six before Stockinger blasted a four past the fielders to bring up his 50 and also the winning runs for Grace's. Grace's won with by seven wickets and 3 overs to spare.