The Under 16 Douglas Muddies played the final day of a two-day match against Innisfail Thunder at Fuller Park, Edmonton on Saturday.

The Muddies team knew that this would be one of the toughest, if not the toughest, matches of the season.  On the previous Saturday Innisfail batted first and the opening bowlers Kaiden Sorensen and Nathan Evans kept the opposition’s runs limited.  

Levi Trewick and Keel Sorensen were next in to bowl and with some fine spin bowling Keel Sorensen took the first wicket on his fourth ball of a wicket maiden over assisted by a great catch in slips by Ashley Davidson.  

Although the Muddies' bowlers continued with tight bowling the Innisfail team started ticking over the runs finding gaps until Hayden D’Addona took the second wicket with a catch to wicketkeeper  Ethan McCullough.  

A great run out by Nathan Evans and a wicket by Sean Evans caught by D’Addona finished Innisfail’s first innings at 4/95.

Muddies' opening batsmen Ashley Davidson and Hayden D’Addona started off the Muddies' batting innings with a great partnership of 44 until Hayden was unlucky to be bowled for 23 off 50.

The Muddies' batters had to deal with the noisiest bunch of fielders they’ve ever had to play against, but our local boys kept their heads and Ben Shrimpton joined with Ashley to have the score at 93 and it took a wild stumping call to remove Ashley from the crease.  

Tom Goodall assisted Ben until the close of innings with the Muddies team at 2/98.

Both teams knew it would be a neck and neck match and upon returning to Fuller for the second half of the match, had to wait for a few rain showers which delayed the start and reduced the overs.

Everybody’s nerves were on high alert but the Muddies' players continued as they had started with Levi Trewick taking the first wicket of the day with a terrific caught and bowled moment.  

Wickets continued to fall by a team effort of bowling and fielding with Sean Evans 2/14, H D’Addona 2/17, Levi Trewick 1/11 off 7, Tully Cartwright and Keel Sorensen each 1/8, A Davidson 1/10,   
Nathan Evans 1/17 and Michael Schulz 1/23 finishing Innisfail score at all out 11/151.
 
With 53 runs needed to win the match the Muddies knew that Innisfail Thunder would use every tactic possible to keep them from reaching their score.  

Shrimpton and Goodall returned to the crease and Goodall was soon out to a catch on 11 off 13.  Next batter Kaiden Sorensen didn’t stay around for long, out on 7.  

With emotions running high and constant cheering from the opposition side boundary, the Muddies concentration was severely tested and top scorer Shrimpton 40 followed by N Evans had unlucky calls of LBW. Ethan McCullough showed his powerful “backyard cricket” arm but was soon caught out on 4.

At 7/126 Muddies were now relying on their lower order batsmen to get them over the line and it was player of the match Michael Schulz who did just that assisted by S Evans, Keel Sorensen, Levi Trewick and not out batsman Tully Cartwright who worked with Michael to keep him at the striker’s end to get the Muddies team over the line with Muddies final score at 11/157 winning the match by only 6 runs.  

The match result showed the Under 16 Muddies team that with great teamwork and honest and determined cricket skills they certainly let the bat and the ball do the talking for their team.