William Young
Rumour has it the man of the match was re-awarded to the head groundsman at the Eden Park outer oval in Auckland yesterday.
The word is Auckland City Council's roading engineers are looking for him and the blokes who helped prepare the wicket for yesterday's Georgie Pie Super Smash Twenty20 game between the Mondiale Auckland Aces and Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags.
In a nutshell, the game - which CD lost by 10 runs - was a roadkill for bowlers such as 140km-plus Adam Milne and spinners George Worker and Tarun Nethula.
Bowlers who bamboozled batsmen in previous rounds might as well have joined the brigade to broom and vacuum the dusty driveway on No 2 yesterday.
CD white-ball merchant Andrew Mathieson's body language and tweaking grasshopper Marty Kain's laughter and shake of head in his last over spoke volumes.
Frankly it feeds the fallacy that people come to the park to see big hits, not a fair battle between ball and bat.
The poor T20 turnout to date this summer is compelling evidence of false economies in cricket.
With the Aces posting a ridiculous 218 runs for victory from their allotted 20 overs, it was a matter of whether the Stags were prepared to ride the run inflation, as it were, through an economic recession.
Even the poor Wasp (winning and score predictor) was looking disorientated in CD's innings.
Commentator Mark Richardson was tickled pink with the sound of ball on willow but that's understandable because that remark came from a former test international notorious for leaving balls rather than hitting them.
No problems with a talented, albeit a bit collectively raw, CD batting line-up yesterday although one has to question the wisdom of commentator Grant Elliott making small talk with Tom Bruce wired for sound on the batting crease.
Correct me if I'm wrong but none of the Aces batsman had their concentration broken at the height of battle.
It was time for William Young to deliver and boy did he, posting a personal milestone 96 runs, including seven sixes and six fours, after opener George Worker failed to capitalise on a bullish batting market where "Nicols and dimes" mattered.
"It's only my second 50 in T20," said Young, who was more preoccupied with making 12 an over to get CD over the line than worrying about his maiden ton.
The TV panel mentioned something about a world-record number of sixes during a domestic game but the 22-year-old was oblivious to any such assertions following the game-high 31 in yesterday's affair.
Opener Indika Senarathne knocked 35 from 16 balls - including three sixes and as many fours - to help boost the CD run chase to 50-plus within five overs. He looks a better prospect than injured Jesse Ryder.
Red-ball batsman Kruger van Wyk fell on his sword to keep Bruce in but the wired one departed the very next ball so CD's 23 runs from four balls was always going to be loose change in an already devalued currency.
Young thought it had something to do with Bruce's pitiful two-week growth for Movember but on a serious note he added that coach Henrich Malan had asked them to bat intelligently and they had done so this time.
"Chasing 217 we had to have a few things go our way but, unfortunately, it fell just short."
For the record, he said batsmen didn't feel sorry for bowlers who two matches ago got the rub of the wicket.
"We just have to adjust to the conditions," he said, revealing the CD camp were "pumped up for six more games" and looking forward to the arrival of Mahela Jayawardene for the clash against the Wellington Firebirds at Saxton Oval in Nelson on Thursday.
Ominously Auckland had passed the 50-mark in just five overs to set a scorching pace, as Adam Milne and Seth Rance took some stick with the first-change pair of spinner Marty Kain and Andrew Mathieson left to control the damage.
You see, as bowler unfriendly as the benign strip was there were no excuses for the short, over-pitched and wide deliveries served to the batsmen.
Unknown quantity Josh Clarkson injected frugality with three runs in his first maiden over in T20, before Kain got into the singles act that yielded 15 of them in tandem.
A spate of Aces fielders dropped catches so take a bow Dane Cleaver for your safe pair of hands and three yawning catches, two from Clarkson deliveries.
Mathieson was smashed for 26 runs in his third over with poor line and length so it begged the question why Van Wyk chucked the ball to him for another.
He went for a demoralising 0-72 (18 an over from four overs) but it was a day on the stock exchange when anyone who managed to stay below 10 an over would have been in the money.
Munro posted a personal milestone of 89 runs but how different it would have been had Van Wyk stumped him a toe-width later on 46 runs, or the umpire hadn't stopped the batsman leaving the field before the TV replay.
The Ace got the MVP but that could have easily gone to Young because it's harder to chase because nothing says the award should always go to the winning team's player.
If it had to go to the Aces then Lochie Ferguson would have been my pick.