72 for 2 at 10, and Ding-dong had a plan. Given the way the opposition was, they'd score a 165, 170 easy.
Jaime (him of the ding-dong style) suggested to me during the 10-over break...what if we had Liza turn her arm over? Scott wasn't so sure. Liza was...a middle order bats....erm...batsperson? Batswoman? Batwoman?
Dingaling kept pushing us to get her to bowl. He'd been working with her, he said, so give her the chance. Jaime, you seriously realise that even though it's a girl they're going to hit her out of the attack? Jaime just nodded, and told me to tell the guys to set the field deep.
And you know what? He was actually correct.
Liza bowled out her four overs and got three wickets. She never actually spun the ball, she just put it on a good length where they could hit it. And for three times, they settled into the arms of outfielders. But her stats were nothing to talk about. Four overs, 3 for 40. The batting team had by this point crossed 150 and were looking for maybe 165 in the last over.
Match report - Final Over, ThunderDogs
After a lot of conversation, Miles was the man entrusted with the final over. If the score passed 174, it would be the highest in the KillToxin League thus far.
Coach and regular captain Qpee could only watch on the sidelines as his bowler ran in.
The ball was honed in on leg, full but not swinging. A muted appeal from the bowler and the keeper.
Still 152 for 6, a big ask without the senior batsmen in the squad. And what they could have done if not for their captain Qpee bowling this last over.
The next ball was outside off and played out to deep cover for a single.
The third ball was smashed, and absolutely smashed at that. It took some excellent fielding from Greg at the boundary, to rival his brother's keeping skill, to restrict the batsmen to just three.
The fourth was unplayable by everyone, but thankfully Sean managed to knock the ball down and only limit the batsmen to one bye.
Miles had the big hitter on strike. And two balls to go. The score was already something like 155ish. We weren't playing a pushover team, in fact without Sammy...and Sean...and Jaime...and myself...we WERE the pushover team. Come on Miles, please. HEY...FINE LEG, GO UP. NO, NOT IN THE CIRCLE...JUST UP ENOUGH.
There was some shouting from the bench, but if Miles heard it, it didn't quite matter. That batsman backed away and the bowler followed him all the way to the leg stump, which was knocked clean out of the ground.
In a rather anticlimatic fashion, the last run was a bye, the run taken even before keeper Sean had gotten hand on ball.
The Thunderdogs need 158 to win from 120 balls.
It was time for our talk with the team.