Kissing Point Cricket Club have inflicted Riding Mill just their second defeat of their virtual tour of Australia with an emphatic 27 run win at virtual Auluba Oval.
Andy Watson won the toss and asked himself what Nasser Hussain would do before announcing that the Mill would field first.
The gamble did not pay off and when Kissing Point raced to 0-47 off just two overs it looked like it could be a long evening for the visitors.
However, Lance Mallinson was able to remove the dangerous Dan Morton with a peach of a delivery that hit the top of off stump. Morton’s 38 off ten deliveries had certainly caused some carnage before his dismissal.
The skipper himself put the breaks on the flurry of runs with 2-11 off his over including a very smart caught and bowled chance to remove veteran Jeff Stewart for 26 off 9. He was on a hat trick when next ball Nick Hasler lifted his back foot and Iain Longstaff did a remarkable job to effect a leg side stumping.
Joel Marks was expensive but did remove Tim Love who had raced to 18 off 5 after he chopped on attempting a cut stroke.
Josh Howe and Naveen Sivanathan put on a very handy partnership before Kev Frazer took a screamer to remove Howe for 28 off 11 off the bowling of Ali Raza. Sivanathan was next to go when he glided one straight into the awaiting gloves of Iain Longstaff behind the stumps and headed back to the virtual pavilion with 38 off 13.
Rob Burns death bowling gave the visitors a sniff, restricting Kissing Point to just 7 runs off the final over and included the wicket of Aubourg who was LBW for 14 off 5. Kissing Point skipper John Ferguson remained 8 not out while D’Silva finished on 1.
Riding Mill would have the tall order of trying to chase down a very imposing 7-171 from their ten overs.
Steve Kent and Rob Burns got the chase off to a steady start and it appeared that they were looking to build a platform from which the middle order could launch.
The last ball of the third over saw Burns dismissed LBW to Jude D’Silva for 19 off 9. Raza and Kent set about building a partnership and at 1-74 off 5 the Mill boys were still well within a chance of victory particularly with wickets in hand.
Again though it was a wicket on the final ball of the over that saw Kent departing just two balls short of his half century LBW to Josh Howe.
Liam James and Aly Raza did their best to up the run rate but were not able to find the big over that they were searching for. Jeff Stewart was able to draw a mistake from Ali Raza who danced down the wicket in an attempt for quick runs only to be stumped by the handy glove work of Kissing Point skipper John Ferguson. His 39 off 14 provided some hope but it would not be enough to get Riding Mill over the line.
Dan Morton capped off a great game picking up two wickets in the final over finishing with 2-10. Liam James was caught by Aubourg for 29 and Iain Longstaff top edged one straight up in the air attempting to hit it into the adjacent virtual bushland before being caught by Ferguson who had a solid day with the gloves.
Sources close to the Riding Mill camp have indicated that there may be some changes to the line up for the all important clash with the UTS North Sydney team of the decade which boasts a host of top line cricketers.
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