Blues win womens title in last-ball thriller
The New South Wales Blues have pulled off an extraordinary comeback against the Western Fury to win the second final of the Womens National Cricket League by three wickets off the final ball of the match. The victory, in front of a small crowd at the Sydney Cricket Ground, gave them the 1999/2000 championship by winning the best of three final series 2-0.
The Fury appeared to have the match in the bag when the Blues requried 21 to win at the end of the 48th over, but sloppy fielding, inaccurate bowling, and baffling captaincy cost the Western Australians the opportunity to equalise the series and take the finals into a third game.
The Western Fury accumulated a useful 7/218 in their fifty overs after captain Zoe Goss won the toss and elected to bat first. Highlights of the innings were a 98-run opening partnership between Elwyn Campbell (65) and Cherie Bambury (38), and an adventurous 52 from Goss.
The Fury openers struggled early, with NSW pace bowler Therese McGregor beginning her first spell with three maiden overs. Unlike the first final, Bambury played a subdued role today while Campbell built her score with her favourite shot, the slog to mid-wicket. Campbell brought up her half-century with her tenth boundary of the innings from 78 balls.
The opening partnership came to an end in the 27th over with the score on 98. Bambury was run out at the bowler's end when Campbell played the ball back to bowler Therese McGregor, who deflected the ball on the stumps with Bambury out of her ground.
Campbell was out on 65 when she drove off-spinner Lisa Sthalekar into the hands of captain Belinda Clark at mid-off.
As in the first final, Zoe Goss looked shaky at the start of her innings but relied on aggressive running between wickets in partnership with Angele Gray to lift the run rate. Their 34-run partnership came to an end when Gray fell victim to some brilliant fielding by Belinda Clark. Having lobbed a delivery from McGregor just short of Clark at mid-off, Gray failed to make her ground at the bowler's end as the NSW captain made a diving return from side-on for a direct hit.
Clark, having fingertipped a difficult overhead chance off Goss earlier in the innings, made her second catch of the day in the next over. Julie Burnett (4) fell to a low catch a mid-off from the bowling of left-arm pacer Emma Liddell.
Goss was involved in her second run-out of the day in the 43rd over when Julianne Langley (7) fell to a direct hit from Sthalekar after a ludicrous call for a single. Having relied mostly on ones and twos to build her total, Goss reached her half-century with the first six of the finals series, a pull shot lofted just over the mid-wicket boundary line. She was dismissed in the final over attempting a slog to mid-on, caught on the boundary by Emma Liddell off Bronwyn Calver.
Avril Fahey (18) fell victim to Belinda Clark's third catch of the day, a simple take at mid-off from the bowling of Liddell. WA took 61 runs from their last ten overs to finish on 7/218.
Therese McGregor, who took four wickets yesterday, finished with 0/28 from her ten today, including four maidens, while Lisa Sthalekar (1/43) bowled tidily until late in her spell.
Defending 218, the Western Fury appeared to take a firm grip on the match in the early stages of the NSW innings. Magnificent bowling by Zoe Goss and Emma Murphy in their opening spells pinned NSW batsmen Belinda Clark and Lisa Keightley to just seven runs in their first six overs. Keightley (11) was first to go, falling to a sharp juggling catch by Cherie Bambury off Emma Murphy. Michelle Goszko (13) struck three consecutive boundaries off Murphy before Zoe Goss trapped her lbw.
Sally Griffiths (1) was the victim of a disastrous runout, the result of bad calling between herself and her state captain. Clark began to open up with some fine boundaries, but when on 24 mistimed a pull shot from off-spinner Avril Fahey into the hands of Suzanne Leinert just inside the perimeter circle.
After New South Wales struggled in the first half of their innings, Martha Winch (67 from 77 balls) led a spirited fightback to keep the Blues' hopes alive. A fine 86-run partnership for the fifth-wicket ended when WA pace bowler Emma Murphy struck twice in the same over. Bronwyn Calver (31) was caught behind by Michelle Cobb, and Winch fell in identical fashion off the last ball of the same over.
Julie Hayes and Lisa Sthalekar kept the runs ticking over, however the required rate remains at around ten runs behind a run-a-ball.
And then, to put it simply, the Western Fury lost it. What transpired in the last two overs appeared to come straight out of the Keystone Cops Coaching Manual.
Cherie Bambury's final over, the 49th of the innings, went for 13 runs, including no less than three 3's as the NSW bats were able to lob the ball over the fielders and scamper for otherthrows.
With WA's most successful bowler Emma Murphy (3/41) still having one over up her sleeve, Goss made the puzzling decision to keep part-time bowler Julie Burnett in the attack for the final over, eight runs needed by the Blues.
The first ball was a single by Sthalekar, followed by a two by Hayes. The third ball of the over saw Hayes out lbw attempting an inelegant sweep shot off a slower delivery.
Five to win, three balls to go. New batsman Therese McGregor stole a single with the help of more sloppy fielding. Sthalekar missed the next ball attempting a slog, and NSW needed four to win off the final delivery.
In a clutch situation, Burnett bowled to Sthalekar. The batsman left well alone as the ball went wide and was called thus by the umpire. Three to win.
Then came another wide off which the batsmen also ran a single. Two runs scored, scores level and still one legitimate ball to play.
McGregor beat the field with the final shot of the game, and she and Sthalekar scampered through before the fielders could gather the ball properly. The final two overs had unfolded in a state of increasing panic by the Western Australians, who let victory slip through their fingers.
Therese McGregor, whose 4/8 spell late in Friday's match helped seal victory in the first final, and who scored the winning run today, was awarded Player of the Finals. NSW opening batsman Lisa Keightley was awarded Player of the Tournament. Belinda Clark, yet again, lifted the Ruth Preedy Cup on behalf of the Blues, the symbol of supremacy in the Women's National League.
With the New South Wales mens team virtually the laughingstock of Australian cricket with their minus 0.1 point tally in the Pura Milk Cup, it was their female counterparts, with nine wins and one loss in all Womens League matches this season, who are flying the state flag tonight.
