The Under 16 Douglas Muddies played a two-day match against Norths over the past two Saturdays proving once again that cricket is a game of glorious uncertainty.  

The match began at Endeavour Park in Cairns on Saturday 4 February with the weather producing very gusty winds and an extremely lush outfield.
 
The Muddies captain Ben Shrimpton won the toss and elected to bat. Almost the entire Muddies team then proceeded to bat the most appalling 32 overs they had ever played as wickets fell quickly one after the other to the shock of their parents, some of who had to remove fallen trees off roads just to get their sons to the match that day.  

Top scorers were Hayden D’Addona on 11 and Glen Ives 10 as the Muddies fell to 10/45 after 32 overs.

Norths then went in to bat and with wickets taken by David Coulthard (2), Kaiden Sorensen, Hayden D’Addona, Michael Schulz, Ashley Davidson and Adon Trewick ended the opposition’s 32 overs at 7/77.

With the most likely presumption by Norths that they had this match “in the bag” the teams returned to Endeavour to play the second half of the match last Saturday. 

The two remaining Muddies batsmen Ashley Davidson and David Coulthard returned to the crease with a huge job in front of them with only one wicket in hand, 32 overs to face and a 32 run deficit.
  
Ashley had a couple of hairy moments including a missed catch by the opposition keeper but he and David put their heads down and with calm determination made an outstanding 90 run partnership for 26 overs until David was caught out on 63 runs.  

Ashley finished on 27 not out resurrecting the Muddies innings to all out for 137.
  
Norths outlook had slightly changed, now needing 61 runs to win and four wickets in hand.  Kaiden Sorensen and Hayden D’Addona opened the bowling. 

In Kaiden’s second over he claimed the first wicket helped by Glen Ives’ magnificent left handed diving catch low in slips. Kaiden proceeded to take a second wicket in that over with an assisted catch by wicketkeeper Ethan McCullough. 

On a roll, Kaiden also took the third wicket as LBW and the final wicket with another fine catch from Glen which finished off Norths batters at 11/87 in only seven overs.
 
Final bowling figures were Kaiden 5/12 off 8 overs, David 2/10 off 6, Hayden 1/5 off 5, Michael 1/10 off 4, Ashley 1/2 off 2 and Adon 1/7 off 2.   Great catches were made by Ben, Sean, Hayden, Ethan and Glen.

Although the Muddies had won the match they took the opportunity of returning to bat for the remaining 19 overs to add extra points to keep their leader board position. 

Tom Goodall and Sean Evans opened the batting with Tom making 20 and Sean making his highest score of 7. Nathan Evans replaced Sean and made 10 with the Muddies finishing their second innings at 4/43 off 19 overs.   

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