By Jonty Ralphsmith
Move over, Matt Renshaw.
The Brisbane Heat batter ramped Beau Webster’s final delivery of the Heat v Melbourne Stars BBL clash for four to win his team the game at the MCG earlier this week.
Doveton president Kaine Bundy went one better and ramped Springvale South offie Jarryd Straker for sixth off the third-last ball to give Doveton an incredible win.
Playing Turf 4 cricket as recently as the 2019-20 season, the Doves have risen and risen quickly, their win over a Turf 1 powerhouse emphasising the improvement – even if in the hit-and-giggle format.
The president has made a name for himself in the first part of the Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) season as Kaine the crease-occupier.
On Tuesday night, he became Bundy the basher.
Entering with the run-rate at about 7.5, he guided the chase expertly, with 35 off 28 including three sixes and a four.
His team needed to go at nine an over for the last three, and his level-headed mindset and ability to deposit the bad balls got it down to seven off the final one.
Captain Nanga Wilson was dismissed LBW to start the 20th, then Dale Kilpatrick faced a dot ball, before unconvincingly slicing a shot over Straker’s head to rotate the strike.
That’s when Bundy went bang.
As he saw it sail over the fence, Bundy tossed his bat in the air and threw his helmet in the air in fierce celebration.
“He finished it off like Michael Bevan I thought in the end,” said Wilson.
“He practices these shots in the nets and tells us how good he is but he actually produced it today so props to him.
“That ramp to finish it off, we all thought he was going anywhere else but there, but he’s the reason we won, he kept his head.
“He played (a ramp) in the first t20 against Parkmore on the final ball of the innings that he got away as well, he hit it for four, so he has been talking it up for the last couple of weeks.”
After a slow start, Simon Mackie, who got a century in the pool stage of the tournament, finished with 42 off 33, getting some boundaries away against the seam-up options, while marquee player Dale Tormey contributed 23 off 11 in pursuit of 153.
When that pair were dismissed – with Mitch Daley already back in the sheds – there were plenty still to get and it seemed a bridge to far for a team that struggles to score against Turf 2 calibre bowlers, let alone Blade Baxter, Josh Dowling and co.
But they found a way.
“I said to the boys at the start ‘we’re probably about 50-1 in a two-horse race here’, so be confident, and then at halftime when we kept them to 152, you could see the confidence grow a little bit,” Wilson said.
“I’d love for us to transfer this twent-20 form onto Saturdays.”
Keeping Springvale South to a moderate total was a separate achievement in itself on a batter-friendly deck with a quick outfield.
Missing trump spinner Ryan Hendy, Wilson opened the bowling with his tweakers, but it was Tormey (3/24 off four) and seconds players, offie Ethan Coates (2/15 off four) and slow-medium bowler Greg Bundy (2/28 off four) that did what was needed of them.
That duo was required because the Doves were without Ryan Hendy and Darren Pattinson – who is yet to begin with them as he nurses a hamstring issue – their absences making the win more impressive.
“Our bowling and fielding was outstanding,” Wilson said.
“For a club that was struggling to keep the doors open four years ago, to make the semi-finals of the whole competition is a really proud moment and pretty special I reckon.”
Springy South’s Cam Forsyth and Yoshan Kumara each passed 40 at a decent clip but they didn’t receive any help.
Meanwhile, the last five overs of Turf 1 side North Dandenong’s batting innings proved the difference against Turf 2 ladder leaders Beaconsfield.
North Dandenong took 63 off those overs, including 19 off the last as skipper Clayton McCartney and Tahsinullah Sultani tonked them all over the park.
There were ramps, drives over long on, carves through the offside and clips and powerful strokes off straight deliveries as they seemed to pounce on everything.
When it found the middle of the bat, it tended to get to the rope, too.
But the innings wasn’t without controversy, for Beaconsfield was convinced they had McCartney bowled by left arm orthodox spinner Mitch Tielen early in the 92-run partnership.
But McCartney stood his ground and the umpire was blindsided, unable to ascertain how the bails had come off.
At that point they were five down going at about seven runs per over as Mark Cooper’s men kept the boundary scoring in check outside of a Jake Cutting over that opener Ramneet Dhindsa took to.
Beaconsfield felt the scoreboard pressure throughout its innings as the only batter to find any rhythm was Jesse Busacca (29 off 21) but he had no-one to go with his tempo.
Underlining the importance of North Dandenong’s finish, Beaconsfield was just six runs behind their opponents with the same number of wickets in hand after 15 overs.
But with such a strong batting order, North Dandy continued taking the game on despite the loss of wickets, whereas Beaconsfield couldn’t find the rope regularly.
Middle-order bat Ashan Madushanka was missing for Beacy but got down to support.
Buckley Ridges was far too strong for Parkfield, winning by 114 runs in a typically high-scoring affair at Park Oval.
Mahela Udawatte scored a lusty century, which included six fours and 10 sixes, to lead Buckley Ridges to an ominous 4/310 which eased it through to the semis.
Berwick is the other team to progress to the final four, taking care of Springvale by 10 wickets chasing 129.
