QLD Country v NSW Metro
Cricket Australia U19 Male National Championships
7 to 14 April 2022, Mackay
Round 3, 11 April 2022 1.45pm at Great Barrier Reef Arena
As a result of heavy rain on Saturday 9 April (rest day), four of five grounds were unplayable on Sunday 10 April. Organisers rescheduled round 3 as a series of 20/20 matches to be played on Great Barrier Reef Arena on Sunday 10th and Monday 11th. The clash between QLD Country and NSW Metro was a cracker.
NSW won the toss, elected to bat and were in trouble after three balls when Ethan Jamieson was trapped in front by Noah Emmerson. Lachlan Shaw and Corey Miller smashed 34 in the next 22 balls before a bizarre series of events. A return catch by Miller to Chick from the 5th ball of the 4th over was grassed. Two balls later, Shaw was out to a Barwick catch from Jem Ryan’s first ball. Miller was dropped again, this time by Ryan off his own bowling. Then, Matthew Wilkins took a beauty on the boundary off the very next ball to give Ryan his second wicket of the over and reduce NSW to 3/36 - two dropped chances and two catches in 8 balls! The NSW 50 came up 13 balls later. The run rate continued at better than a run-a-ball despite Harrison Tzannes nabbing a couple of edges behind the stumps off Lucas Poeppmann in the in the 8th over and Flynn Thomasson in the 10th. While wickets were falling at one end, the impressive Joel Davies was accumulating runs at the other and was 31 from 28 when the drizzly showers that had been around all day finally turned into a heavy one at 2.50 and players left the field with 12.5 overs bowled. Play resumed at 3.07; the 17 minute loss resulting in a reduced match of 18 overs per side. Davies and Xie took an important 9 off the next 4 balls before the umpires called a halt again. This time play was not possible for about an hour. The NSW innings was closed on 5/92 and the DLS method employed to calculate a target of 100 from 13 overs for the QLD Country side.
Skipper Ethan Ramsbotham and Flynn Thomasson set about the task with gusto. Ramsbotham blasted a six in the first over, then Thomasson took charge clubbing a couple of boundaries and a six into the construction site in the last over of the reduced power play. QLD were 0/31 after 4 and the 50 came up from just two balls more than the NSW innings. NSW temporarily applied the brakes in the 8th and 9th overs before a massive 21 (including 3 fours and a six) in the 10th took the score to 78 leaving 22 to get from 21 balls. A very tight 11th over by Ethan Jamieson left QLD with the task of 17 from 12. Hopes were dented when Thomasson became NSW’s first wicket via a catch by Yanni Theodorakopoulos off Jake Nisbet and again four balls later when Nisbet took a second to make it 2/91. Nine to get from the last over. A couple of singles left 7 to get from 4 balls, but the task became even more difficult when wickets off successive deliveries by Davies made it 7 to get from 2. Enter Jem Ryan who promptly “drop-kicked” his first ball for six over wide long on. Scores tied on 99. One to come. A full toss? BANG. FOUR to Ryan. A win to QLD Country from the last ball of the innings!!
