After delivering the blow of defeat over fellow club team Muddies Blue, Muddies Green had the unfortunate situation of a forfeit and an abandoned game to result in not playing for 3 weeks prior to the do or die semi final against Mulgrave Punjab, an unorthodox and threatening team.

Green enjoyed an excellent comeback win by Blues over United in the morning and set about losing the toss to be placed in to bat first with promoted youngster D’Addona and Darlington opening.  With a strong defensive game D’Addona (0) accidentally popped up a simple catch to short mid on off a full toss.

Darlington valued his wicket higher than normal in a bid to set a strong foundation as Harrold (7) scored six from his first two deliveries before again cutting to be caught in slip, Muddies 2/14.  Redfern also tried setting the pace with an early pull shot for 6, caught in gully two balls later for 7.

Butters (11) took six balls to get off the mark but held out to a sleepy catch at a deepish mid off, followed by Darlington judged caught behind for 8 off 39 balls and Muddies a bit “no-wheres-ville” at 5/45. 

The in form pair of Miglioranza and Walz joined to steady the ship at the halfway point pushing ones and twos to allow a possible onslaught in the final 3-6 overs, Walz falling LBW for 15 with 6 overs remaining. 

Miglioranza and Doble managed a poor misunderstanding that saw the skipper run out for a duck so it was young Ethan McCullough (9) and Miglioranza (27) to complete the innings with a useful 22 run partnership before the latter, suffering a sore quad followed by a torn hamstring was caught off the last ball scoring 12 off his last 9 deliveries.

Muddies were content with a triple figure score to defend on a pitch that although true seemed to be a bit paceless and an outfield that is starting to look like the way Douglas Council used to manage it – too long for quality cricket!

Mulgrave Punjab are a very attacking batting side yet in the last encounter they started in an unusually subdued manner that in turn placed a lot of pressure on their middle order. 

Muddies thought the younger bowlers may perform well on the slower pitch and neither Hayden nor Kaiden disappointed, a mere 7 runs by the fifth over before the sheer control of Sorensen clean bowled an opener followed by D’Addona offering one of five superb catches to fellow U16 team member McCullough when the Mulgrave score was 9. 

Sorensen tore through the batsmen to finish with 6 overs 4/6 and Mulgrave reeling at 5/13 in the tenth over, needing 5 an over on a ground offering at best 3. D’Addona was rested after 4 overs with 1/6 to allow Butterss’ pace to
return him 2/11 off 5 and Redfern offering another of the catches to the keeper and a bowled for 2/13 off 5. 

Barnes who has been a leading wicket taker only needed 1 over for his 1/3 and Mulgrave were all out for a staggeringly low 40 runs 10 minutes prior to what would have otherwise been the third match between the two teams to be washed out. 

Next Sunday will see a One Day Grand Final between the two home teams at home in Port Douglas - Muddies Green Vs an equally in form and quality Muddies Blue, a very proud moment for Douglas Cricket Association, its members and its quality sponsors. 

Albeit, the two teams will also play off in the two day series semi final Saturday/Sunday of the following week, so it’s MUDCRABS all the way, with one guaranteed set of silverware and another still up for grabs against what will either be Mulgrave Punjab or Innisfail in the two day format (ground TBC).