With 5 new players entering the side this season, one could be excused for being a little bit apprehensive about the teams chances of making the top four play offs, especially given the fact that front line bowler Patrick Miller had decided to take up newer opportunities by joining up with the Colts.
The first 3 games came and went with convincing wins to Mainstream and it quickly became evident that the team had bonded together quickly on and off the field. New recruit Mike McLean sent early warning shots that he was indeed going to be a bowler not to be taken likely and proved to be very influential in the games to come.
New batsman Marlow King and Ben Wright also showed good form and how important top order partnerships were going to be in crunch games.
Unfortunately Mainstream could not continue their winning streak and succumbed to the heavyweights of Grafton and Indian Allsports who were both to feature in the top four playoffs later on. The season progressed well enough for Mainstream, winning the games against the lower seeded teams, having Eden Roskill pull out and gifting us points when we needed them, but also loosing convincingly to Grafton and Indian Allsports on all occasions.
wickets for the season with his usual nagging line and length deliveries resulting in numerous breakouts of “Yabba Dabba Doo” impersonations. Mike Mclean despite having missed almost half the games proved a very handy buy for the team and finished up with 29 wickets from just 9 games with the ridiculous average of conceding just over 2 runs per over.
So the Mainstream lads continued to win when it mattered most and kept themselves within the top four and went into the finals destined to play against the two teams that had beaten them on all occasions. However this time luck was on our side as the rain gods came to the party giving us shared points against Grafton and India, making it a straight out knock out into the grand final should we beat the 4th placed tea Sri Lanka.
and beat them we did , with a four wicket win the lads found themselves going to the final to play against India Allsports.
Perhaps the least favored teams to have in the final, not so much the fact they had beaten us in the two previous encounters, but more towards the fact the way in which they played in the spirit of game, not only toward us but to all other teams in the same comp.
Still, all matters aside we knew that was out of our control and we decided to just concentrate on creating our own destiny.
Batting first we got off to a solid start but wickets began to fall regularly and we could only amass a score of 150 odd, perhaps 30-40 runs short of what we would have hoped for. Mainstream then tried hard to knock them over quickly but at drinks they found the Indians at 70 odd for just 2 wicket down. But then it happened, the Mainstream lads put together what could only be described as the best ever fielding/bowling performance I have ever been part of. The Indians collapsed as sensational catches were taken, immaculate line and length bowling developed and soon enough the pressure to score runs was too much for them and they crumbled to be all out for just 122 runs with the last 8 wickets going for 40 runs.
So the season finished where we only dreamed where we could be when we started, but thanks to the marvellous team comradery that we shared on and off the field (although perhaps a little to much sharing at times!) it was only a question of when we would win a championship, not could we win. Not only was the winning of the 4A grade a great way to end the season but the successful Drive for 55 world record attempt was indeed the icing on the cake. The team will be back in full flight next season ready to defend our title and who knows, perhaps even looking for new world records to break! |
