OH, BROTHER: THE UNEXPECTED HUNDRED

December 21, 2017. Just when you think you know how a game is going to play out, it will grab ahold of your attention and show you otherwise. Whenever I head out to cover cricket, I have a few goals and guidelines I try to keep in mind. Among others, be prepared, turn up with an open mind and remember my place in all of this. On Saturday, unprepared and with somewhere to be later in the afternoon, I misguidedly fell short of these goals.

I had no intention to write this week; I only ended up at Cornwall Park to see if I could catch my brother in action and the ground wasn’t all that far away from where I hoped to nip off to by 3.30pm.

I opened my car door to hear the screams of ‘Caaaatch!’ almost immediately followed by celebrations. North Shore’s Tim Duncraft had snaffled, from all accounts, a miraculous caught and bowled to claim his third wicket. His quick reactions spelt the end for Cornwall’s top scorer Sam Crooks, who battled his way through 106 balls to depart with 55 runs to his name.

His dismissal ensured North Shore were on top heading into the death overs. As I sat on the outskirts of the ground, I said to Carl Brungar that it was a bit of an odd looking scoreboard. Given Cornwall had arrived at the final ten overs with six wickets in hand, you would expect them to have done more than creep to 158/5 in the 44th over. He then described the Cornwall style. They are really disciplined, keep wickets in hand and try to go big at the back end. They tend not to lose wickets in pairs. They’ll get what they get and put the squeeze on.

All of what he said resonated historically and with six overs to go, Cornwall were still a chance of 230. Now I am unsure how accurate this is, but later Ben Wall, North Shore’s wicketkeeper, would claim to have been the only player in his side to have previously beaten Cornwall as a Premier player. I know full well how this can happen having taken the best part of a decade to complete what I like to call the set (beating all the Premier clubs at least once).

It would be amiss of me not to mention North Shore’s over rate here admirably finishing their 50 overs with no less than fifteen minutes to spare. It certainly helped that Roneel Hira, Tendai Chitongo and Chamal Rajapaksha bowled 30 overs of spin between them for 104 runs.

Courtesy of a Fanie de Villiers’ last over onslaught and Cornwall’s biggest of the innings, the club from the foot of One Tree Hill finished on 202/6. For a side that was never really in trouble, they will be disappointed that they didn’t build into the innings. Outside of the initial powerplay, the innings run-rate only thrice exceeded four an over. I only saw the final seven overs. Maybe North Shore's bowlers deserve a bit of the credit.

At any other ground, I would have had North Shore in front, but as skipper Graeme Beghin said when he walked past for lunch, we’ve played one half; we’ve got to finish the job. They will come hard at us. We must be prepared for a fight. Cornwall Park has an aura to it. If you walk away with the points, you can say you’ve shown courage and discipline and maybe even had a bit of luck.

The chase began with Beghin punching through the vacant cover area for two. It must have settled the nerves because North Shore were quick to get on the front foot and take the fight to Cornwall. Five overs in and flying at 50/0. Hira had raced out to 35 off 18 before Beghin was trapped in front by de Villiers. While it may have only been 21, the skipper showed the others the way. Coel Mahoney soon followed and a promising start ended.

With North Shore well ahead of the required run-rate, Michael Olsen followed the lead of his openers while Hira transformed from bomb squad leader to picket-fence builder in the space of a couple overs. After a hard-hit lifeline at point, Hira brought up a 38-ball half-century.

While the need to build a partnership outweighed the rush to finish the job, it took Cornwall three tight Swapnil Karnik overs to get North Shore below run-a-ball. The boundaries dried up but the singles did not. Olsen's high elbow blunted the Cornwall attack. He waited for width and was particularly accurate in bisecting the two points Cornwall had in operation.

Though Hira would offer three further chances – all tough catches back to different bowlers – there was great patience to change gears and control the chase. After a hundredth look at my watch, the left-hander ticked over his hundredth run to great cheer from his teammates. A beautifully lofted cover drive for six followed before Hira picked out a jovial Brian Barnard at long on with five still to get.

The 138-run partnership will have excited coach and captain Beghin, but not as much as the final boundary. There was great satisfaction on his face as North Shore prevailed by 7 wickets.

Despite the objections of one particular member, I found myself invited into the North Shore changing room for a beer and the team song. It's not every day you get to watch your brother score a hundred and when you are already a couple of hours late, what is another half an hour?