With Stags' loss to Northern Districts by just
one wicket, they're left to study the 'what-ifs'.
CRICKET by Anendra Singh
sport@dailypost.co.nz
Well, idiomatically speaking, you win some, you lose some, especially those games that come down to the wire.
But the burning question remains.
Could the Stags have avoided the one-wicket loss to the Knights in Palmerston North with a ball to spare?
As Doug Bracewell and Jacob Oram bowled in tandem at the death, the last four overs to anyone following the game on New Zealand Cricket's live scoring website must have left them pondering the what-ifs. Oram, over 47: 2, 1, 4, 4, 1, 2.
Bracewell, 48th: W, 4, dot, 1Lb, 1, 4.
Oram 49th: dot,1, W, dot,1, 2.
Bracewell 50th: W, 1, 6, 2, 6, with last ball of the match to go when ND eclipsed CD's total of 280-5 in 50 overs with 283-9.
By no means is it a witch-hunt or the bloodletting of two bowlers who possess the unenviable task of rolling their arms knowing even rabbits such as Brad Scott and Jason Donnelly have a fairly good chance of smashing them over the ropes at Fitzherbert Park's reserved boundary.
To haemorrhage 42 runs in just 24 balls was the match-defining turning point.
To the bowlers' credit, the wickets fell but ND No9 batsman Scott was in a belligerent mood, lofting two sixes and boundaries each to be unbeaten on 10.
Having racked up 280 runs on a pelter of a wicket, CD should have felt comfortable about defending the total.
"It was definitely a defendable total," said opening batsman and hometown boy George Worker, who scored 109 runs off 129 balls, including five boundaries and four sixes.
The 21 year old, putting aside his bittersweet emotions after the loss, said the CD batsmen had worked themselves into a solid position with Mathew Sinclair contributing 66 runs and his fellow Napier Old Boys' Marist allrounder, Kieran Noema-Barnett, unbeaten on 41 after an explosive innings off just 26 balls.
"We let ourselves go on the field where we could have saved 20 to 30 runs," Worker lamented, claiming narrowing the match down to the four overs or two bowlers wasn't a true reflection of where they underachieved.
Coming off a shaky start to the four-day Plunket Shield season late last year, Worker was chuffed to find form in the shorter version of the HRV Cup Twenty20 competition and bringing it into the limited-overs campaign.
"I think going away and really working hard physically, mentally and technically on my game did the trick," he said, not ruling out getting back into the shield matches after coach Alan Hunt and selector Scott Briasco dropped him early in the season.
Veteran paceman Michael Mason didn't play yesterday because of sore achilles' tendons.
So was Mason's experience in death bowling the missing factor?
Considering it was a batting track perhaps Worker's left-arm orthodox may have been the answer, considering he had a scalp and was going for 3.33 runs an over off three overs.
Easier said than done but a few never-arriving balls mixed with yorkers in a trade-off for dots and singles would have been equally effective.
Having beaten the Auckland Aces by two runs in the first round last Sunday, the day belonged to the Knights.
Opening batsman Daniel Flynn carved up 116 runs off 122 balls, including a dozen boundaries, to build the platform in the run chase.
It's a pity the 50 overs aren't televised as both rounds have nail-biting matches.
In the other matches, Otago was knocked off the top of the standings when they crashed to a 99-run loss to Canterbury in a second-round match at Queenstown.
At Colin Park, Auckland, Wellington were left ruing an unfortunate run out of skipper Grant Elliott after they lost by eight runs to Auckland.
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