NORTH SHORE BOOK EDEN PARK TICKET

January 26, 2018. Moments. Contingencies. Heroes. Playoff sport is a different challenge. It is difficult to prepare for. It is exciting to watch. The favourites must wrestle the line between confidence and complacency while the underdogs hope to disturb the status quo. Add the volatility of T20, an established rivalry and a rematch of a recent semi-final to the mix and Wednesday’s semi-final between Waitakere and North Shore promised to be a cracker.

The sun was out, the tents were up and the boundary was filling up at Te Atatu Park. The grass wicket had been deemed unsuitable for play having been soaked during Tuesday’s storm, so the decision was made to transfer to the artificial wicket. It made for a ridiculously short boundary on one side and no doubt some seething nasty fasties.

Graeme Beghin won the toss and North Shore decided to bowl first. Ronnie Hira was thrown the ball to open up, making him the second Hira to bowl the first over in a semi-final between these two sides on Te Atatu Park (fun fact).

The late Blair Webby, for whom this blog is named after and dedicated to, often reinforced the importance of winning the first ball of a match. With influential students to Webby’s theory at either end – Hira with the ball, Dusan Hakaraia with the bat – anything could have happened. Dot to start. In fact, the first four balls were dots.

Carl Brungar struck immediately at the other end as Hakaraia took on the long leg-side boundary. Jared Challis hit four boundaries in his ten-ball stay before he also took on one of the biggest boundaries in Auckland club cricket. It was about now Beghin offered a gem from the long-on boundary, ‘we’ll see who learns first’ as his side edged the powerplay.

An in-form Shozib Mirza struggled to get going, while the experienced Brad Cachopa showed his class. I have seen Tendai Chitongo a few times now and he has almost always impressed. I said as much to a former teammate and I should probably apologise to Tendai for what followed.

With a short boundary and a strong leg-side player in Cachopa on strike, Chitongo went on a journey to open his spell. Dot. Six. Four. Dot. Six. Six. Just as Waitakere were getting themselves on top, Tim Duncraft had Mirza caught at short third man by Gus McKenzie.

At 75/3 after 10, a good foundation had been laid for Waitakere. Cachopa was set and there were several stroke-makers to come. Simon McGowan, a North Shore newcomer of sorts, had other ideas controlling the middle of the innings beautifully. He conceded just the one boundary and 23 runs from his four overs.

Duncraft found the edge of Cachopa (43) to claim his second wicket before McGowan got rewarded for his consistency by removing Nathan Fletcher. At 100/5 after 13 overs, 170 was still on the cards if Waitakere could muster a partnership of substance. Instead, the last seven overs flew by. Despite some lusty blows, namely a huge six over the mammoth mid-wicket boundary by Travis Ngatai, North Shore kept the death overs in check.

The chase was rather clinical from North Shore. Beghin pulled the first ball from Ben Lister for four and the boys from Devonport never really looked back. Despite losing the wicket of McKenzie to Ngatai in the third over, each of the first five overs went for at least two boundaries – a cracking Beghin back foot drive through a packed cover point field the best of them.

The powerplay blew by Waitakere. North Shore had broken the back of the chase and at 67/1 after six overs, Beghin and Hira could take their time against the spin of Jordan O’Neill, the competition’s leading wicket taker to this point, and JChallis. After a few quieter overs, Hira picked out Lister at wide long-on.

Beghin continued on, playing a trademark innings of leadership and responsibility. Michael Olsen lived up to his nickname with an administrator-like innings – singles and twos the order of the day.

There was a moment during this time where a fielder in the deep slid with little to no intent to field the ball. There was talk about fake fielding from the sideline and what looked like an appeal out in the middle. While there was no throwing motion (​not entirely necessary), the umpires really should have entered into a discussion – for no other reason than that I’d being able to tick ‘witness fake fielding’ off this season’s bucket list.

Having deposited O’Neill over the leg-side for six, Beghin was primed to go past fifty for the third time in this competition. O’Neill, though, showed he had not given up as he snuck the next ball through Beghin’s gate to end his stay on 49.

Needing 56 from 54 in fading light, Ryan Thomson strode to the wicket at a crucial juncture. With the run-rate at manageable levels, Waitakere needed something special. Thomson wasn’t going to let his opportunity slip by. He was at his subtle and delicate best - on one occasion charging down the wicket before calmly guiding backward of point for four.

At 111/3, Brugar pipes up, ‘I’m looking forward to this one, Pun.’ I didn’t quite know what to make of it. There were still 45 runs to score! While Beghin couldn’t stand to watch the action, he had turned his seat around and apparently felt immediately ‘50% more relaxed’, here Brungar was as confident as ever.

Overs 15 and 16 both went for ten runs as Olsen flat-batted Lister over the cover boundary. Nine singles followed before Olsen (40*) put any remaining North Shore nerves at ease slog-sweeping Sam Bing a long way over the mid-wicket fence. With the scores tied, Thomson was out trying to finish the job before Chitongo drove handsomely through to the cover boundary.

North Shore were through to Sunday’s final winning by six wickets with an over to spare. The game was won and lost in the powerplay and Waitakere will know they were fractionally off the mark in both innings. In T20, that’s all it takes.