The mighty Buccaneers faced off against 4th-placed Merivale Papanui in the semi-finals of the Division 6 competition this week. We’ve played Merivale on 3 other occasions throughout the season. The first game was won on the second-to-last ball, the second game was won by 40 runs, and the most recent encounter saw us decimate the Merivale batting lineup for 49 runs to see us win by 155 runs. We knew that we had the quality to secure ourselves a place in the finals but all we had to do was play to our standards.
Interim skipper, Zane Phillips won the toss and chose to bat as we hoped the wet and muddy Hagley 3 pitch would become a nightmare to bat on later in the day. We planned to see off both the opening bowlers and raise the run rate when the ball eventually succumbed to the conditions. Then we try to bowl them out for less than what we got. Simple.
We lost a couple of wickets early and had to endure a tantrum thrown by one of the opening bowlers. He was struggling to understand you needed to hit the ball with the bat to be caught behind and not miss it entirely. We headed into drinks at 20 overs with a score of 49/4. Both openers had bowled themselves dry and the middle to lower order began looking to accelerate the run rate. After drinks, Sneak and Om steadied the ship further before Sneak was given out after a well-batted innings. Our plan then proceeded to come to fruition with the Buccs scoring 100 runs within the following 12 overs. Om, myself and Zane all began to take to the Merivale bowlers scoring boundaries for fun. At this point, the ball may have stopped swinging, but we certainly did not. Our batsmen were driven by both desire to get into the final, and absolute fear of receiving the yearly duck award at prizegiving. We ended our innings on 145/10 after 38 overs. Zane top-scoring with a quick-fire 38 and Sneak and Om ended up on 26.
From our previous encounters with Merivale, we knew that if we bowled to the standards we set for ourselves, we would be able to secure a place in the final without much trouble. And to that we did. Zane got off with a bang as he cart-wheeled the opening batsman’s middle stump in his second over. However, questions were then raised about the tint of the umpire’s sunglasses as he refused to give an LBW which was later apologised for by other members of the Merivale team. Karma later struck as the umpire as mentioned above chopped it back onto his stumps on his very first ball. Quack Quack Quack.
Realising the wicket had begun to look more like a BMX track than a cricket pitch, Om and West Coast phenomenon Josh Roche were brought on to wreak havoc with some diabolical spin bowling. This was the point where the Merivale batting lineup was obliterated. Their number 3 batsman watched multiple partners come and go with nothing he could do about it. He then tried to put the team on his back and started swinging in hopes of alleviating some of the built-up pressure. He was caught 15m from the boundary but unlike last time we played Merivale, he didn’t pack up and leave as soon as he got out this time! We are proud of him for this personal growth.
Aggressive fielding tactics were then employed with both myself and Joel Turner having stints under the helmet. Om even got himself a crack at a hat trick! But unfortunately, Joel didn’t dive for it. We viciously tore through the Merivale team with wickets falling faster than we could keep up with. Eventually, despite their 10th wicket partnership being nearly their biggest of the game, their last wicket fell for a total of 44 runs off their 20.5 overs. Om and Josh took a combined 9 wickets during their spells. Om got a 5-wicket bag for just 10 runs and Roche secured a very tidy 4-5 off his 6 overs.
Despite Merivale’s previous wafted claims, they weren’t able to bring us “mouthy Buccaneers” down a peg or two as we secured a 101-run victory over the side. We were very pleased with the result and wish Merivale the best in their 3rd and 4th place playoffs next week! We also look forward to seeing the highlights posted to our favourite YouTube channel soon.
Resident Autist,
Alex.
