Toowoomba Nepalese v Macgregor Mystics
Warehouse Winter 2022 - Grand Final
14 August 2022 at Kianawah Park 11
A magnificent day at Kianawah Park for the Sunday B1 Grand Final between minor premiers, Toowoomba Nepalese and Macgregor Mystics. Rain over the past couple of days had its effect on the synthetic surface and the outfield, but the umpires were content to start on time. The quandary was bat - on a wet pitch and slow outfield - OR bowl - in slippery conditions and a potentially wet ball. Thankfully, Saddam lost the toss and the decision fell to Nepalese skipper, Pukar, who elected to bowl.
Channa and Saddam began cautiously taking the score to 16 before Pukar crashed through Channa’s defences with his first ball around the wicket. Things got worse when Saddam was adjudged LBW two overs later. Manish and Sukhveer battled through to drinks (17 overs) without further loss, taking the score to 2/57.
After a grafting partnership of 35 from 72 balls, Manish fell just 8 balls after drinks also victim to LBW. Shenaz joined Suhkveer and began to advance the scoring rate. A magnificent catch at short midwicket dismissed Suhkveer (34) with the score on 97, just as it appeared that the 36-run partnership was about to dominate. However, Javed proved to be the ideal foil for Shenaz and the pair added 41 from just 46 balls including 20 in two overs leading into the second drinks break.
The break proved to be a jinx for the Mystics. Javed was trapped in front first ball after drinks and although Zubair and Shenaz added 26 from 28 to take the score to 163. the remaining 5 wickets fell for just 6 runs; Mystics all out for 169 from 42.2 overs. Shenaz the last man out for an important 47 from 81 balls.
The first two overs of the chase were bizarre! A wicket from the 4th ball of Aman’s first over had Nepalese 1/0, but Sana just could not find his line in the second over which ran for 11 balls, 9 minutes and 24 runs. By the end of the 4th over, Nepalese were 1/44 with Sundries top score on 19. Saddam was rewarded for the introduction of Sukhveer in the 8th over, when a leading edge was snapped up by Sana at short cover to make it 2/62. Three balls later Aman picked up a second when he crashed through the defence of opener Iroj. An expansive cover drive by Asmit off Suhkveer was beautifully caught by Sana diving forward, then five balls later, Javed made a difficult chance look easy at mid-off off the bowling of Taha. Nepalese had lost 4/9 in 29 balls. Sumit looked to make a statement slamming two massive sixes in the 15th over, but the wily Saddam had other plans, introducing Shenaz with immediate result - Sumit trapped LBW and Nepalese 6/89 at Drinks.
The shift in momentum became even more significant when Nepalese skipper, Pukar lofted Shenaz into the outfield three balls after drinks only to be well caught by Sana on the boundary. Bowling in tandem, Suhkveer and Shenaz seemed to have the measure of the batsmen. Sukveer grabbed his third wicket in the 22nd over deceiving the batsman with a quicker one and trapping him in front. Shenaz’ 3rd came three overs later when Channa took a sharp chance behind the stumps to make it 9/118. It all ended at the end of a sizzling over by Sana when the stumps were scattered to give Mystics the Grand Final victory by 42 runs.
Congratulations to all!
Congrats also to Macgregor Hawks who had a comprehensive 8 wicket victory on field seven. Four wickets each to Manish Gupta and Mathysuthen Velmaran. Manish backing up his haul with 36 in the chase.
