by Steve Doble and Nathan King

The Port Douglas Muddies Cricket teams had a massive weekend of home games on Saturday and Sunday and finished Sunday afternoon with a win and a loss in the one day games that were played.

On Saturday the Muddies C Grade team played a spirited Innisfail team. the day began badly with losing the toss.  With a hot and humid atmosphere winning the toss by Innisfail and deciding to bowl first gave them the immediate upper hand.  The pitch was playing reasonably well but the ball was swinging all over the place through the air.

Jack Goodall opened the innings for The Muddies C Grade side and proved to be the only one to show any resistance until he fell to a careless shot, like so many of the other batters and was out for 11.  From then on it was just an early Christmas Parade as wickets continued to fall until the Muddies were all out for 48.

Matt Schiesser opened the bowling for the Muddies and bowled a magnificent line and length which put the Muddies back in the game after he picked up wickets in his second, third and fourth overs finishing with the very tidy figures of 4 for 11 off just 4 overs.  Unfortunately the bowling from the other end was not as tight and although Port Douglas had Innisfail 6 for 37, one over of 2 sixes and a four changed the shape of the game and Innisfail recorded a win by 4 wickets.

The Port Douglas Mudcrabs B Grade side played United in the Grand Final re-match and the game certainly stood up as a hard contest on a viciously hot day.

Like his C grade counterpart, Skipper Nathan King loss the toss of the coin and the Muddies were sent into bat under very cloudy skies.  This caused the ball to move all over the place and it led opener Daniel Harris to get a leading edge to be caught at square-leg without scoring in the  third over.  Shortly afterwards, the same ball got McConnell out for 8.

Uebergang and Varcoe looked like they were going to take it up to the bowlers until a short ball kept low and Varcoe was out LBW for 8 followed 4 runs later by Uebergang who was bowled also for 8 and then when Miglioranza fell caught for 2 leaving the Muddies at 5 for 36 and in 'dire straits'.

King had been fighting hard all day and when he was joined by Taylor a little partnership was forming but again one of those dubious LBW decisions that have haunted the Muddies all year ended Taylors innings on 7 which nipped a promising partnership of 14 runs in the bud.  At the end of the day it was the second biggest partnership for the game.  However the biggest partnership of 17 was put together Vikionkorpi joined King but again a sharp catch on the long-on boundary saw Benny V dismissed on 9 and the total on a dismal 7 for 70.  Six runs later the Muddies were all out for 76 with Mitchell, Mison and Walz all coming and going without troubling the scores.

The top scorer for the Muddies innings was the extras column with 16 wide deliveries courtesy of the generosity of the United bowlers.

A spirited bowling attack was needed and of course it was duly delivered by Matt Mitchell and Ben Vikionkorpi. Mitchell picked up his first wicket in the third over.  Both the opening bowlers were obviously determined to make it as difficult as they could for the United batters to make the small total of 76.

However the United batters were struggling to hit their bowling and it was therefore difficult for the bowlers to pick up a wicket.  Sometimes you can bowl too well!

A quick change of bowlers by the Skipper saw the off-spinner Walz come on and immediately the change of pace worked.  He took a wicket of  his first ball with Keith Taylor taking a nice catch in gully after it had been skied in the air. Walz finished his excellent spell with 2 for 15 off 9 very tight overs .

Port Douglas B Grade Score Card

Skipper Nathan King continued to change his bowlers in an attempt to keep the batters on their toes.  So when he went back to his main attack after the first drinks break, Vikionkorpi had Richardson caught off his first for 10 by Harris at mid-wicket and then the very next ball had Tattersall’s caught behind down leg-side for a golden duck. Another partnership gathered United a few more runs between young Clinton Porta and Stewart but again with Stewarts wicket another followed quickly when Mitchell had Ward LBW in the next over. This left United on 7 for 69 going into the second drinks break and only needing 9 more runs to win the game.

King then called on Vikionkorpi to clean up the tail and to do it quickly and with the help of Mison taking the hard wicket of Porta for 16, Benny V only needed 3 balls off the next over to take the last 2 wickets of the game leaving United 6 runs short and giving Port Douglas B Grade team a hard fought win.

Benny V was man of the match after taking 5 for 20 from his 9.3 overs.

"What a great way to finish the first half of the season with a come from behind win. Everyone put in a 100% and it was great to see no one stopped until we got that last wicket." Vikionkorpi said