Sport
20 March, 2023
Colts and Owls in semi-final for the ages
It was a game of cricket that will live long in the history books. Both Colts Phelans and Maryborough threw everything at their semi-final over the weekend, with Colts eventually coming out on top by 24 runs to book their spot in the grand final. It...
It was a game of cricket that will live long in the history books.
Both Colts Phelans and Maryborough threw everything at their semi-final over the weekend, with Colts eventually coming out on top by 24 runs to book their spot in the grand final.
It was a game of big momentum swings.
Maryborough got off to the better start, claiming two quick wickets with just 24 runs on the board, with Martin Dell striking. First, he got Wayne Stubbings to edge a ball straight to Todd Doran, before clean bowling Ed Foreman.
Colts were able to get themselves back into the contest, putting on 62 runs. Rhys Wagstaff was able to get through the early carnage, while Rhys Egan provided good support.
However, Sam Bartlett would soon come into the attack and would immediately strike, getting the wicket of Egan when Doran took his second catch.
A quick 20-run partnership between Wagstaff and Jackson Gordon followed, but Bartlett was able to get the Owls straight back into the game, taking the next two wickets without conceding a run.
Handy work from Doran saw him stump Gordon, before Callum Watts was next to go, with Dell taking a catch off Bartlett’s bowling.
Soon after, Wagstaff would pass 50, and looked to convert that into his second 100 of the season, but was only able to make 13 more runs before Doran took his third catch of the day off Lachlan Morganti’s bowling.
It left Colts in trouble at 6/120, but Matt Scott and Luke Tatchell would soon provide arguably Colts’ most important knock of the season.
The two would embark on an 83-run partnership which helped push them past 200, before Tatchell was caught and bowled by Bartlett for his fourth wicket of the day for 32.
Scott was able to pass 50, but became Bartlett’s fifth victim when he was caught by McClure for 56.
Colts negotiated the remainder of day one to finish on 8/232.
When play resumed on Sunday, it was Colts who made the best start, with Thomas Hart and Bartlett early victims from good bowling by Nick Henderson and Scott, leaving the Owls 2/7.
However, the partnership of Mitch McClure and Morganti soon steadied the ship.
McClure, in particular, was playing some excellent shots, and made his 50 prior to the tea break, helping Maryborough sit pretty at 2/106 at the halfway point.
Soon after the break, Morganti would make his 50, but was undone not long after by a brilliant catch from Ben Stubbings off the bowling of Scott at extra cover — an acrobatic effort which saw Stubbings parry the ball before catching it running back with the flight.
That wicket would change the game again, as Dell was soon run-out looking for runs by Watts.
The game was still hinging on McClure’s bat, and he would soon bring up his 100 after a couple of nervous moments, which saw him perilously close to being run out on 99.
Yet wickets were still falling around him, and it was Wayne Stubbings who came on and did the damage.
Firstly, he got Hoban to edge a ball to Tatchell for 10, before clean bowling Harry Lumsden for a duck. The biggest wicket of the game would soon fall, with McClure, now looking to score quickly to ensure the Owls would reach their target, caught between extra cover and deep point by Watts off the bowling of Richard Clark for a 124, ending one of the great finals knocks.
Wayne then took the final two wickets of the game, with Zac McLeod getting a slight edge to Tatchell, before trapping Liam Maffescioni in front for LBW, sparking scenes of jubilation among the Colts cohort as they had managed to bowl the Owls out for 208 after they sat at 4/193 at one stage.
