Braidwood cricket side recorded it's first ever win in the CCSCA competition at Wanniassa on Saturday with a 2 wicket win over Tuggeranong.
Tuggeranong won the toss and elected to bat in hot and humid conditions on a field that had obviously thrived on the recent rain. Braidwood took the field with ten men and young Todd Pritzler who was visiting Mitch Smithers agreed to field and this may have been a major deciding factor in a match where runs were at an absolute premium. Todd allowed regulation field positions to be set and proved to be more than capable fieldsman.
Like Staunton and Troy Harrison opened the attack and made good use of the conditions by pitching the ball well up allowing it to swing. The Tuggeranong batsmen had great difficulty in coping and in Troy's second over he removed one of the openers stumps. At he end of the opening spell of 11 overs Tuggeranong had crawled to 1for18.
Daniel Wood and Pat Martin continued the good work and both had the ball swinging in the air and well pitched up.Pat secured the next breakthrough when Luke held a skied catch in the covers as Tuggeranong when to drinks at 2 for 46 and it was their intent to increase the run rate with wickets in hand.
Peter Hazell made decisive breakthrough on the second ball after drinks and struck again in his next over to improve the scoreboard to 4 for 49.At the other end Glenn Scott was bowling without luck till Corey Pont took a good catch at fly slip and shortly after Mitchell held a sharp chance behind the stumps. Hazell was troubling all the batsmen and removed the next two LBW not sure which way the ball was going.
Scott wrapped up the innings by bowling the number 9 and Pat Martin held on to another skied catch to end the innings in the 37th over at a total of 81.
This was a great effort in the typified by the valiant attempt to hold a catch by new boy Damien Bigg who ran 20 meters before diving to catch the ball only to have it bounce out of his hands as his elbows hit the ground.
All the bowlers used the conditions to their advantage with Hazell 4for 14 from 8 and Scott 4 for 28 from 8.4 the main wicket takers
With 45 overs to get only 81 runs Braidwood realized it only had to occupy the crease for the overs and victory would be theirs. Openers Corey Pont and veteran Rob Martin came up against bowling that also was able to exploit he conditions with the ball swinging considerable distances. Corey was first to fall to a brilliant catch in the gully and his run of freakish dismissals continues. Hazell joined Martin and these two took the score to 12 before another brilliant piece of fielding saw the stumps hit from side on from 20meters with Martin short of his ground. Staunton didn't last long and Braidwood were struggling at 3 for 14.Debutaunt Bigg played a little gem of an innings to score 12 and help carry the total to 33 before dehydration led to rush of blood and he was bowled in the over before drinks. Young Pat Martin survived to drinks and 7 overs beyond in scoring 6 and adding 14with Hazell who was looking comfortable picking up a gaggle of singles. Wood an Scott both made solid contributions before being dismissed. Scott made 11 and was dismissed with the score on 80 and in the next over disaster happened when Hazell was caught in the covers for 30 after holding the innings together, leaving Harrison and Smithers to get 2 runs to win with only Todd in the pavilion to follow.
Smithers let the first ball pass and the punched the next delivery back past the bowler for a single to lock the scores together.
The next delivery Harrison pulled to midwicket and the batsmen scampered through for the match winning run to record Braidwood's first ever victory in the CCSCA competition.
This weekend sees the Braidwood boys at home to Brindabella in a return match and after their efforts in recent weeks the side is confident of another victory. This will be the last home game before Xmas so if you enjoy live cricket come down to the Rec on Saturday afternoon from 12:30
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