Rangers White Vs Cavaliers
December 1st & 8th
Premiership
REPORTS
PAGE
Out strutted one of the greatest guys in Churches, in the form of Errol �Ekka� Steinback, who also Vice Captained QLD at last years nationals. It wasn�t too before too he stamped his class on the attack playing some audacious lofted cover drives and brutal cut shots. It also helps when the fielding team drops him 3 times in 2 overs off poor Gary Middis.
At the other end, Fitty picked up the key wicket of Cook, who was playing a silent but deadly anchor role until he leg glanced one way down leg to the keeper who took a outstretched, one hand diving catch to his left. In the words of Errol �that was a [CENSORED] amazing catch mate! One of the best in the last couple of seasons!�
Next ball Fitty claimed Josh �That�s a fine� Brandon to be on a hatrick, to which Chris Cookson avoided easily. One again the Bundy Award was making regular trips around the team. The Captain led by example by forgetting the scorebook, then to Elliot at batpad who lost the ball with his frantic head spins, then to Aaron who forgot what �Hold the ball� means in English and gave the batsman some overthrows, then back to Shandy, who went to run in and gather the ball on the volley, conveniently forgot about the stumps and ran through all 3 off them.
This provided us with the appropiate platform to call on everyone�s favorite bear-Bundy! And it wasn�t too long before the lines of �Slow it down� or �Go the Polar Express� mingled with giggles and laughs, were echoing around the ground. Not one to let down his supporters, Bundy struck by taking 3 wickets in 4 balls, all bowled with his reverse pace left armers.
During all this, with a SS Jumbo older than our team combined, Errol was playing a gem of an innings. It seemed no matter where one would bowl it, he would easily flay it to any chosen part of the ground with ease and it was unlucky that he ran out of partners as he was stranded on a murderous 85* as Gazza cleaned up the tail and leaving himself on a hatrick for next innings.
Pick of the bowlers was once again Fitty who recovered to take 3-35, Bundy with 3-38 and Gazza taking most of Ekka�s punishment with 3-53.
With a total or 182 to chase down for first innings, it was always going to be a dangerous total and by the 4th over it was proving true as Aaron was out early and Ramsey claiming revenge on Fitty. At the same time Doc Elliot was looking like a candidate for a duck if we ever had seen one as he was poking and swinging at balls left right and centre. However, Doc and the Rangers recovered to be 2-55 at the drinks.
Elliot would then go onto play one of the braveset innings seen in a long time in Ranger history. Even though he wasn�t middling the bat at times, and looked far from his best, Elliot played with pure concentration and inner strength. His cover drives were one to behold and his short arm jabs and pull shots were played with ease. It was great to see the team go crazy at his fifty� in fact, it was amazing that Elliot didn�t lose concentration and get out with what the boys were shouting from the bench.
Calls of �Its your day Elliot� soon turned into �Its your gay�. Jamie was scaring new Ranger Eli Pollard with his animal like mating calls, Rhys was busy singing some random tunes, whilst playing the melody line with his bat knocker-iner-er against Eli�s new bat. Fitty was the subject of sledges whilst at square leg, all the while the Cavaliers were thinking we belonged in a mental asylum or even worse, Sub Districts cricket.
Whilst Elliot was busily entertaining the camera crews, Shandy, after being really tested by Cookson first up, brought up his fitty with a 6, and then a couple of balls later, cracked a full toss over square into the middle of the school, where the ball bounced halfway down the roof of the 2nd building. One over later a cut shot for 4 got the Rangers past first innings, which after a hard and unlucky start to their season, they thoroughly deserved.
With the team gathered at the bench for Elliot was in the nervous 90�s, the 3rd last ball of the day, Elliot eloquently cut one behind square to bring up his 2nd century (14 fours and 2 sixes ) with the Rangers to the applause of his teammates. It shows the caliber and character of a player when even not at his best, and Elliot was far from his best, he can still stick around for 43 overs and battle out an innings and bring up a tough but well deserved century
Also, Doc and Shandy went on to establish the highest partnership for any Ranger wicket, passing past Sam Batten�s and Shandys 164 run partnership in the finals against Wolston Park Gold ( Shandy only scored 27 runs of that partnership�..)
However it was definitely also a lot of fun mucking around the Cav boys in the middle, swapping jokes, laughing at Josh�s call for catch, not realizing the ball went straight to him, and just enjoying what Churches is really about.
Week 2
Looking for quick runs and a declaration, the Rangers went out looking aggressive and fired up. However with just 2 runs added to his overnight score, the Doc fell caught behind to equal his highest Ranger score of 102. Out came one of the team�s cleanest hitters in Gazza Middis, who went out to pummel the attack with ease. In the next 10 overs, Shandy and Gary put on 71 runs and in the process, Shandy brought up his 2nd Ranger hundred, and as he did with his 50, brought up his 100 with a six.
However the turning point of the game came through Errol �The Man� Steinback, who after 9 overs had the figures of 0-36, went on to claim 6-7 in his next 5 overs. First to go was Gary, outdone by Ekka�s renowned slower ball, ending the partnership of 93 off 15 overs. Same over, Shandy became Errol�s bunny for the 2nd time, out LBW for 122, Michael Middis soon followed, out to another slower ball, then Jamie, LBW, followed by Picachu, Eli and finally Rhys, out to Cook, out for an entertaining 14. Rangers White dismissed for 318, with a lead of 136.
With 38 overs left in the day, Rangers White were aiming to bowl at the Cavs asap, unfortunately, Churches in form batsman Damien Pyne (who up to this point had scored several fifties, including 145 Vs the Neddies & 88 Vs Noahsharks) had other ideas and played a innings that smacked of class and timing. Unfortunately Rhys during season had picked up Jamie�s usual case of bad luck, to have catches falling short or just wide of fieldsmen.
In his debut match, Aaron Stevenson, brother of Biceps, quickly coming to the conclusion that we couldn�t catch, figured that hitting the stumps would be the easiest option. And it took a pearler to dismiss Pyne for 21 off 14, then a corker to bowl danger man, Errol for 38, then Josh Brandon caught by Picachu at mid on.
Unfortunately a few more dropped catches eased the pressure for Cavs, especially Cook, who was playing another stubborn and destructive innings. Even after Jamie and Gary picking up a wicket each, and with time quickly running out, the Rangers were losing options and fire. Until a fired up Bear came on and brought the team back into the game with an amazing spell of swing and somewhat medium pace bowling. With the Umpire introducing the bowler as Left arm around, Express, (Much to the jeers of the Rangers) Bundy would go onto claim 4-9 off 4 overs including one of the balls of the year to bowl Cook for a very well played 84 to complete a great game for him. Bowling around the wicket, Bundy pushed one wide to bring Cook forward to have the ball move of the pitch, between the tiniest gap between bat and pad to knock back offstump. Bundy went on to wrap the innings up for the Cavs at 215.
Definitely the highlights on the field were Elliot�s catching escapades. We all cracked up when we saw the look of pure terror that graced his face, when he realized he was the only fielder in the vacintity to catch Jamie�s induced top edge. And the last wicket fell with Doc performing a mighty fine star jump, to realize he moved way too early, to take an entertaining and suspenseful one handed juggling catch at short midwicket
Unfortunately the Rangers only had 6 overs to hit the target off 80 runs, and with the loss of one wicket, Gary and Aaron Stevenson got us to 1/44 of 6, Gary rounding off a fine match with 32 not out on top of his 37.