By Marcus Uhe
A spontaneous decision from Buckley Ridges captain Jayson Hobbs and coach Manjula Munasinghe at the innings break against St Mary’s saw all-rounder Michael Davies shifted from his customary finishing role in the middle order to the more stable position of number three.
Or so he thought.
The idea was to afford Davies, a Wookey Medal winner and a valuable all-rounder for the boys from Park Oval, some time in the middle, having been largely denied the opportunity due to a combination of washouts, strong batting ahead of him earlier on the batting card, and often not having much to chase, such has been the dominance of his side this season.
With only 92 runs required in a rain-affected 25-over-a-side contest at Carroll Reserve, and with 56 runs to his name for the season, Davies welcomed the opportunity with both hands, eager to find his groove ahead of the upcoming finals campaign.
He would come to receive much more than he bargained for, however, reaching hero status for the Bucks in a dramatic final-ball win.
“I have been in a couple of games (like that), but not nine down,” Davies said.
“Being the in-form batter you think ‘if I go out, then that’s game over.’”
He joined Jake Cronin at the wicket after Ben Wright departed for 16, and watched from the other end as chaos ensued.
Five combined runs from Roshane Silva (three), Hobbs (two), Ishan Jayarathna (zero) and Troy Aust (zero) ripped the heart out of Buckley Ridges’ middle order with Susantha Pradeep and Saveen Nanayakkara the architects of the demise for St Mary’s.
But with the experienced Davies at the other end, the Bucks remained not-without hope.
Heading into the final over, the Bucks were nine down but needed just three runs to win.
Joined in the middle by Davies was tail-ender Faridullar Khil, with even less time in the middle this season than his senior partner.
Nanayakkara, as one of the form bowlers for the home side, was entrusted by his skipper, Pradeep, to secure the vital breakthrough.
Davies turned the first ball of the over to the leg side and took off for what he believed would be a safe single, but quickly found himself in-strife.
“It went down to short 45 and I thought (the fielder) was square,” Davies recounted.
“It went pretty fine and I thought, ‘I’ll get back for the second here,’ but (the fielder) obviously moved around when I wasn’t watching, and it went straight to him.
“I was halfway down (the pitch) and thought ‘oh no’.”
Not only had he nearly brought his side’s innings to a dramatic close after doing so much to keep it on life support, but he had relinquished the strike to his inexperienced partner.
Having picked the brain of umpire Ashley Barrow regarding the runs and balls remaining equation throughout the innings, Davies was fully aware of the context as time ticked-away.
After watching Khil defend for three dot balls following the first single, Davies knew the fifth ball was ‘go time’, with all three results a possibility.
“(Khil) blocked a couple, then drove one to mid-on,” Davies said.
“I ran, but he stopped halfway.
“I said ‘run!’ and he started running.
“I think it was a bit of a shock for him, it was obviously so intense to get that run, just to get that draw, and it got me back on-strike.”
With a loss now out of the equation, Davies and Khil had secured, at worst, three points, with each becoming more and more important in the run home, following the confirmation of their 12-point suspension over a player points mistake involving spinner Sanka Dinesh.
With the equation as simple as can be – one run to win, one wicket for a tie – Davies simply had one goal in mind; getting bat on ball.
He did that, and then some; clearing the cover boundary with a six to the delight of his teammates in blue.
“I was just trying to make contact to get it over the infield, trying to get that one run just to win the game,” he said.
“They bowled really good lines and made it hard to score.
“We should have got it not nine down, but cricket is a funny game.
“With us losing the 12 points, every win is vital for us now.
“And because it’s so close with the points from second to fifth, every win now is vital for us to stay in there and make the finals.”
While Buckley Ridges’ percentage on the Turf 1 table is only bettered by the all-conquering Springvale South, thanks to a handful of comprehensive wins earlier in the campaign, it’s not the first time they have been pushed to the absolute limit.
Back in round five against Narre South, the circumstances were eerily similar, with Khil at the other end once again with the best seats in the house for a tight chase.
Chasing 167 for victory, a James Anson boundary on the penultimate ball of the day saw them reach the target nine wickets down, before Anson was castled on the very next delivery to bring the match to a dramatic close.
The player points error stripped the Bucks of anything tangible to show for the effort, having had the six points taken off them as punishment, but Davies said the manner in which they held their composure down the stretch in both matches will hold them in good stead as the season reaches its pointy-end.
“We’ll definitely reflect on these,” Davies said.
“It’s a big positive winning a game, but with the weekend, we definitely shouldn’t have been nine down, with the batting line-up that we’ve got.
“It was good to spend a fair bit of time out there.
“I don’t know how long I was out there for but (it was) just (about) getting time out in the middle.”
Pradeep and Nanayakkara each took three wickets for the Saints in what is a second-consecutive spirited performance from Pradeep’s side, keeping their hopes of escaping relegation alive in the back half of the season.
Earlier in the day, the Saints reached 6/91 before rain forced both sides from the field after 25 overs.
Four of the seven Saints batters reached double figures, led by Safaras Moahomad’s 28, having moved down the order to number four.
Jayarathna and Hussain Ali each took two wickets for Buckley Ridges while two run outs didn’t help the home side’s cause.
Rain forced a lengthy delay that brought St Mary’s’ innings to a close, and reduced the available number of overs for Buckley Ridges to face.
Buckley Ridges heads to Hallam this week to face the battling Hawks, while St Mary’s welcome Narre South to Carroll Reserve.
