SUBURBS GIVEN SCARE BY HIRA AND WALL HEROICS

February 17, 2019. 58 games into the summer, you may have thought, by now, I would have seen it all. You would be mistaken. Despite an on-going longing to witness a hat trick for the best part of two seasons now – ball is in your court, boys and girls – I’ve been treated to some, at times, special cricket. Game #59 however – a Limited Overs semi-final between North Shore and Suburbs New Lynn – tops the lot.

Suburbs batted first on a used Devonport Domain pitch that surprisingly had a tinge of green to it. A who’s who of Aces top order batsmen awaited the Shore bowlers, yet it was Joe Cracknell who made the first move for Suburbs. The business end of the season is the ideal time for something to have clicked for the overseas opener. The keeper didn’t last overly long, but his mad dash certainly set the tone for his side.

Test opener Jeet Raval squeezed his first delivery past backward point. Brungar (4-56) continued to go relatively hard at Raval and the pair shared in a verbal tussle. Without knowing what was said, the back and forth underlined the magnitude of the occasion. After five boundaries – some elegant, others fortunate – Raval (32) pulled a half-tracker to a diving Tim Duncraft on the square-leg boundary.

North Shore had two wickets inside 14 overs, but Suburbs had both a sound start and a formidable middle-order. As I would later be reminded, sport promises nothing. Every moment is up for grabs. For now, it was an extended Raj Majithia moment; the classy right-hander’s unrushed glides and guides saw Suburbs through the accumulation phase. Sean Solia must have attempted in excess of fifteen reverse sweeps and traditional dinks behind square during this same period.

Three things resulted from the Majithia and Solia partnership. A platform was set, the scoring slowed and Suburbs kept their considerable power on ice in the pavilion. Both players went past fifty. Then with the innings starting to take shape, Majithia punched a ball to point; confusion followed. Solia (62) may have overcommitted at the non-strikers end and Michael Olsen was accurate enough to swoop on the opportunity at the bowler's end.

Majithia (107) accelerated through the eighties and into the nineties, using his wrists to hit powerfully over cover and wide of long-on. A further two took the young man past three-figures. The hit was now on and the final ten overs saw Suburbs lose a flurry of wickets. Victor Davies didn’t let Shore off lightly. A single from the final ball brought up Davies’ 24-ball fifty. It wasn’t just an knock of power and placement, but one that pushed the visitors to 304/9.

The chase started with a brief Stephen Baard blitz, Graeme Beghin bowled pulling at one that stayed fractionally low and Gus McKenzie given leg-before in a disastrous opening 15 overs. North Shore needed someone to score big. It was a chase that could have played out several different ways. Go hard, at risk of losing wickets, to get the required run-rate down. Build a platform, keep wickets in hand, to chase an inflated required run-rate at the death.

Neither occurred. North Shore couldn’t build on Baard’s early boundaries and off-spinner Dane Watson (3-16) had his name all over Suburbs’ sudden dominance. His wickets of Sam Hinds, Olsen and Brungar set up what looked an early finish. At 143/7, Suburbs’ players and supporters would be forgiven for feeling like more than just a foot was in the final.

20 overs left. 162 runs required.

Ronnie Hira, who had earlier been collared for three sixes in his final over by Davies, was eager to repay the battering. Joined by Ben Wall, the pair of scrappers all but stood between Suburbs and a semi-final victory. Wall has played some important innings of late, but I cannot honestly say what I expected from the wicketkeeper. Hira, on the other hand, I have had many first-hand views of what he is capable of. Cries of ‘one wicket away here, lads’ suggested Suburbs knew it too.

The match was being played down one side of the square leaving a short square boundary. Add a stiff wind towards the clubhouse and there was certainly an opportunity to put up some big numbers. After three dots to start his innings, Hira did just that lifting his first six over mid-wicket. He didn’t stop there allowing Wall to grow in confidence. Hira was doing enough of the scoring that anything Wall ticked over was a bonus.

Suburbs had a chance to close the game out when Hira launched Mitchell Murray into the wind. Raval settled on the boundary, jumped up to take the catch, but the ball slipped through his hands for six; he was let know about it when he moved around the boundary in front of the North Shore players. All done and taken in good humour, of course.

Hira and Wall piled up double-figure overs after the second drinks break. Wall had had enough of survival and got in on the act hitting back-to-back boundaries before taking on both Murray and the gale to hit his first six. Oddly, Raval came into the attack from the end that left him most vulnerable to the Hira onslaught. On 97, Hira was dropped again; this time on the mid-wicket boundary. The next ball he faced went for six over deep square-leg. It was a 58-ball hundred and one that was, by every swing of the bat, making Suburbs increasingly uncomfortable.

Solia eventually came back into the attack. North Shore had miraculously reduced the equation to 15 runs required from four overs. The hosts were now favourites. Some Solia trickery changed all that. Wall managed to guide a slower bouncer through to Cracknell behind the stumps. Wall (43) was on his haunches as Suburbs rushed in to celebrate breaking the 147-run eighth-wicket partnership.

Matt Strain had a job to do. Last four balls or get off strike. He lasted two. Solia went full and straight. Strain missed. It was up to number eleven Tim Duncraft to get through the over and hope Hira could finish it off. Duncraft did his part as Solia (3-56) delivered a double-wicket maiden; this left Hira on strike to face Sam Devereaux. The tall seamer started with a wide. Devereaux pulled his line in slightly and Hira (128) attempted to flay it through the off-side. An inside-edge crashed into the stumps and Suburbs had won one of the great club matches by 13 runs.