Over 60s Tie Final Match

The final game of the Nationals was to be against Queensland to determine who finished third or fourth.

Scores : SA 4/195 tied with Qld 8/195

SA won the toss and elected to bat on a worn, tired looking pitch with a thickly grassed, slow looking outfield. At 15 overs we were 1/46, at 30 overs 2/111 and after 45 overs, 4/195. We were fairly happy with this total with the main contributors being Peter Judd, 50 retired off 55 balls, Paul Clark, 45 off 92 balls and Dale Bateman, 33 off 63 balls.

When we bowled, the first wicket fell to Tim Pellen in the 15 over just as we were to have a drink. Their score was 1/48 off the first 15 overs. In the next 15 overs we took only one more wicket and they advanced their score to 2/106. Needing 90 runs from 90 balls for the remainder of the match it was always going to be a tight finish.

At the start of the last over we needed 2 wickets and they needed 12 runs. Unfortunateley for us, one of their openers who had retired on 50 earlier, came back to the crease and with 9 still needed for their victory off 3 balls, he hit the fourth ball of the over the boundary for a 6. Two more runs came off the last two balls to result in a tied match. 

The pick of our bowlers was David Wenham with 4/39 off his nine overs, with one wicket apiece to Tim Pellen and Bateman.

In the field Kim Woods completed a freakish stumping and Darren Cheek completed an unassisted run out whilst bowling and David Smith, completed another run out together.

If quotient is used to decide who of us finishes third or fourth then it would be SA as we lost less wickets in this match. Also after the first three games, our quotient and run rate were higher than Queensland.