The Hills Fleurieu (made up of players throughout the hills area, plus Mildura and the South East) Over 50's recently competed against Eastern Zone in the Grand Final at Karen Rolton Oval #2.
A first for south Australian Veterans cricket Association. The game was also live streamed and was the first ever veterans cricket game to be live streamed in Australia.
The Hills side won the toss and elected to bat and were determined to put a score on the board to defend later in the day. Unfortunately, they were in trouble early losing skipper Telfer for 5. This brought Leith Dawes to the crease with Jed Mensforth put together a fantastic second wicket partnership before Mensforth retired with a brilliant 40 from just 48 balls. Dave Collins came to the crease and made a quickfire 20 from just 15 balls targeting Peter Judd who was punished. With the score now at 2 for 114 with 17 overs remaining the hills began to push the pedal to the floor.
Dawes retired also at 143 in the 27th over with a well-made 40 from just 65 balls. The evergreen Wenham continued to push hard and also retired making a brilliant 40 from just 34 balls.
With 10 overs remaining Gavin Reid worked hard for his 19 and Andrew Robinson 10, Stuart Hallam (6) Craig Lallard 12 not out continued to keep the runs flowing. At the completion of the 40 overs Hills Fleurieu compiled a very respectable 218 for the loss of 4 wickets. With wickets in hand Hills Fleurieu left between 20-30 runs on the park, but the brilliant bowling by Eastern Zone in the last 10 overs restricted the Hills final score.
Best with the ball Harslett 1 – 29 from 8 overs, Sam Howard 1-29 from 6 overs and Australian representative Tim Sargent taking 1 – 30 from 8 overs.
In response Eastern Zone got off to a shaky start with skipper Andrew Carver losing his leg bail from a brilliant inswinger from Craig Lallard in the first over – just the start the Hills team required as they attempted to defend the score of 218. Carver has been a thorn in their side in the previous past 2 outings. Dave Benson was joined by Andrew Ramage who both took the score to 56, when Collins struct with the wicket of Ramage who was well caught by Shane Bradfield at mid-off.
Dave Benson retired for a very well compiled 41 from 54 balls, which brought Alan Favell to the wicket to join Andrew Sinclair to attempt to chase the huge score down. Flavell & Sinclair took on the spin of both Wenham & read and kept the score ticking over before Flavell retired showing his class with a superb 45 from just 40 balls. Kelly came and went when deceived by a brilliant piece of off spin & flight from Mensforth and Telfer accepted the stumping chance. The Eastern Zone were now in some trouble when they also lost Sinclair, LBW to Adam Wooller who bowled extremely well in the middle overs and was rewarded for some straight stump to stump bowling. At the 33rd over and the score at 4 - 149, Eastern Zone needed 10 an over to win the game.
Now at the wicket were Chook Harslett & Peter Judd. This was where the fire works started with both batsmen thumping 4 and massive 6’s
Coming down to the last 2 overs Eastern Zone required 26 runs with 6 wickets in hand. Craig Lallard bowling the 2nd last over had 13 hit with Judd clearing the boundary twice.
With Judd on strike facing the last over and desperate to get Harslett on strike, the Hills team affected what was a match winning runout by Adam Wooller of Harslett of the 1st ball of the last over. Stuart Hallam kept his nerve and kept his final over to just 4 runs bowling a brilliant line & length and restricted the Eastern Zone to a final score of 5 - 210. Back to Back Champions and SAVCA Champions for 20-2021.
Best with the ball was Wooller 1 – 29, Mensforth 1 – 8, Hallam 1 – 36 & Collins 1 – 46, while Wenham was economical as usual bowling 6 overs for just 18 runs and winning the Man of the Match Twenty20 Vision Eyeware award.
The Hills Fleurieu team had a brilliant year ending the season as minor premiers. They definitely have set the bench mark this season putting all on the line including some brilliant and selfish fielding on the boundary by Daryl fisher who injured 2 fingers in 1 attempt to save a boundary.
At the recent SAVCA awards, David Wenham won the Champion player of the year for a third consecutive season, Bowler of the Year and made the Team of the year as the best Allrounder in the competition.
Also named in the team were Leith Dawes who secured the pivotal #3 spot and Hills Skipper Telfer also being named Wicket Keeper of the year.
Next season the state carnival will be held in Adelaide during November and South Australia are looking to field 4 teams. Discussions have commenced to form a second Hills Team in the State competition. If you are keen to be involved reach out via Facebook or the savca.com.au website.
Until next season, stay safe!
Comments