Some may take time to adjust – but Kooweerup D Grade skipper Brent Wilson relished the return to two-day cricket on Saturday.
Wilson produced an innings for the ages, cracking 197 not out as his Demons piled on 6/362 in their allotted 70 overs against Clyde at Ramlegh Reserve.
Due to the impact of Covid, it was the first-time two-day cricket had been played since March 2020, with 40-over one-day cricket becoming the staple diet of West Gippsland cricketers over the last two seasons.
Wilson, now in his twelfth season at Kooweerup since moving across from Drouin, cracked 25 fours in his knock, that lasted 213 balls and left him a little worse for wear.
“Yeah, I’m a bit sore to be honest,” said the 45-year-old with a chuckle.
“I was a fringe player at Drouin and Kooweerup until probably five years ago when I started slipping back through the grades.
“That’s my fourth or fifth century in 25 years of senior cricket, so they’re few and far between and you need to enjoy them.”
And that’s especially so when your team has struggled for runs in recent years.
“We won the toss and seeing that we hadn’t played two-day cricket for three years I was pretty keen to bat first because I think most teams were going to struggle to bowl and field for 70 overs,” he said.
“The side that I’m in has had a pretty lean 18 months, we finished bottom in C Grade last year, lost a few players from our premiership a few years back, and we’re trying to regenerate with some juniors.
“It just started off like any other day I guess, we’ve got two 13-year-olds in our top four, so I try and play as a coach as well as a captain.
“Cooper Davey (13) batted well at three, and we put on a few, then we lost a few pretty quickly, until Wilko came to the crease and things took off from there.”
Wilson and Adam Wilkinson (93 from 78 balls) produced a magnificent stand of 212 runs for the sixth wicket, which was only broken when Wilkinson ran himself out, on the second-last ball of the innings, trying to get Wilson on strike to provide him with the opportunity to make 200.
“Clyde had a few out, but you still have to make them and me and Wilko are pretty good mates, we’ve played together for a couple of years, and we both really enjoyed building the partnership,” Wilson said.
“He’s always been a run-a-ball sort of guy, where my strike-rate is usually a lot slower than it was on the weekend.
“It took me a while to work out that one side of the ground was a lot faster than the other.”
Wilson came into the game in great form, having made 96 in a failed run-chase against Officer in his last visit to the crease on Sunday 16 October.
“We were chasing a high-score, I didn’t know what I was on, charged down the pitch and got stumped,” he recalled.
“On Saturday I didn’t know exactly what I was on, but knew I was getting close and it felt great to get there.”
Then the chase began for 200, with a boundary required off the last ball of the day!
“Getting towards the end, I did want to know how close I was to the 200 because opportunities like that don’t come about too often” Wilson admitted.
“Wilko ran himself out and I faced the last ball.
“I guess I was bit nervous, our seconds were playing next door and they had finished for the day, so they were watching as well.
“I had a big swing, but didn’t quite connect, and got the single.
“It’s a great feeling to get what I got, even though a few more runs would have been nice.”
While Wilson was plundering Clyde’s D Grade attack, Premier Division opener, and captain, Luke McMaster was doing likewise at Kooweerup, making 193 against the Cougars as well.
“It hasn’t sunk in to be perfectly honest, it still feels a bit surreal, and from a club perspective, to have two blokes make big scores on the same day would be pretty rare I would have thought,” he said.
“It was a pretty special day for Kooweerup.”
And a special memory for Brent Wilson, who will enjoy it more after a long bath or two!
