At team selection night the C Grade Muddies were looking strong on paper, however two late withdrawals looked likely to set the team back.

Fortunately, the Muddies were able to call on two talented juniors in Nathan Evans and Kaiden Sorensen to fill the boots of Ryan and Miglioranza who were off to cheer The Allstars.

The Muddies were forced to bowl first against Mulgrave Punjabis who got off to a better start than previous encounters at 0/17 off 4 overs before Butters, promoted to open the bowling, removed the off stump of Punjabi’s opener. Walz followed suit on their other opener in the next over at 2/19.

Punjabi batted in their usual style taking aerial routes more so than text book ground shots, and at 2/54 off 12 they were looking quite effective before Sorensen (2/29) bowled a tight line with great seam movement to have Adra (23) caught deep in the field by a determined Saint, capturing the applause of CFN’s Secretary who was umpiring for the day.

Gaul was used to fill the spare bowlers' spot, tempting close chances before an infield return dislocated his finger drawing blood and off to hospital he went.

Butters (3/25) struck again in the 14th over with Punjabis 4/60 at drinks and struck again after drinks. But the middle order solidified their position, taking advantage of the Muddies being a player short in the field and one poor over from part time bowler Andrews (1/34) going for 17 runs.

Between overs 15 and 22 Punjabi virtually doubled their score from 62 to 118 and set up a strong batting finish, many catches just out of reach on their way to compiling 7/167.

Nathan Evans quietly sniggered as he saw his outspoken brother Sam fall first ball. Doble was less amused as he walked out at number three and saw partner Darlington (6) also returning bowled with the score at 2/7.

Walz had a couple of early fortunate moments as the two set about a 47 run partnership with Doble caught off a leading edge for 7. Walz (45) continued with another 49 partnership with Butters (35), promoted to number 5.

At 3/103 the Muddies were just behind the run rate but thought wickets in hand would get them close enough for a very tight finish and the possible return of Gaul from hospital.

This was not the case on both accounts as the tail fell quickly. Nathan Evans (0) only beating his brother by five extra balls and Sorensen (1no) stranded without a number 11 partner who was still sitting in casualty after three hours.

The Muddies finished all out 9/117.

Back at home this week against the top team Mareeba, starting 1.30pm, with B Grade hopefully supporting during their bye.

CFN have adjusted the fixtures and C Grade will continue for a further two games after this week against the southern pool of teams, not yet encountered this season. 

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