By Russell Bennett
Late on Saturday afternoon was Cardinia’s imperfect storm.
Alex Nooy’s Premier side – which is locked in a tight battle for finals positions, and likely will be for the rest of the WGCA season – seemed miles away from victory against Upper Beaconsfield at 5.30pm.
This is despite the fact that, at that stage, the Bulls were 5/218 in the 70th over – just 19 runs short of victory.
The clouds had rolled in over the preceding hour – gradually at first, and then imposingly.
By 5.30 the sky looked like something out of a doomsday movie, and then the inevitable downpour happened – hitting E. Gunton Oval from all angles, and seemingly washing away the Bulls’ victory hopes with it.
Chasing Upper Beac’s 236-run day one total, the Bulls resumed at 0/2 with Nooy and Ben Parrott at the crease.
The Maroons were too short to start with as the Bulls reached 0/27 from the first eight overs – knowing that three runs an over would see them home.
But just as they seemed set, Parrott (22) and Nooy (30) were both removed and were joined soon after by Brad Reiner – stumped off gun Upper Beac spinner Scott Pitcher.
But from there, two young Bulls with plenty to prove with the willow – Matt Welsh (58) and Travis Wheller (44) – combined for a 79-run stand that had their side well back on the path to victory.
Their partnership had the perfect mix of patience and stroke-play, aggression and defence, and set the tone for what looked to be a comfortable win.
Welsh then showed maturity well beyond his years in partnership with Ricky Campbell (40) before Welsh ultimately fell at 5/214. Just minutes later, as the players left the field with the rain tumbling down, the game – cruelly for Bulls – seemed destined for a draw.
But they were having none of it.
Though there was still some light rain in the air at 6pm, Nooy and his team-mates took matters into their own hands to ensure they could get on to the ground and finish what they’d started.
“When it was just drizzling Patty (Nolen) and I got straight out there and we got a blower out of Luke’s (club president Luke Turner’s) car,” Nooy explained.
“Te Ahu (Davis) came out as well. Patty and I had the broom and I was standing on that as he was pulling it across the pitch, and Te was coming along behind us and blowing all the excess water off.”
After another short wait to remove the rest of the excess water from the pitch, play was to resume at 6.30. Suddenly, their hopes of a crucial win were revived.
“What we were getting up to was pretty funny, but we just had to get back out there because at one stage we thought we’d win five down – not struggle badly at nine down!” Nooy said.
“We had 15 overs to go at one stage and only needed 20 runs with five wickets in hand, but that’s just the way it goes.”
Nooy said that by the time play resumed, the overs left weren’t the issue – the time remaining was.
Then, at 6.40, in his own words “all hell broke loose”.
The Maroons took 4/10 to have the Bulls suddenly staring down the barrel of defeat at 9/224 – still needing 13 runs from the final wicket.
It all came down to the last over, and while Alex was the star recently with his blistering ton against Emerald, this time it was his brother Aidan’s turn – belting a six and a single off the final over to secure a famous win.
“You’ve seen where Upper Beac are on the ladder,” Alex Nooy said following the clash.
“In the fight from third to sixth you need to keep winning games because it’s just that tight.
“If we don’t keep winning we can drop quite quickly.”
Ultimately, Nooy was at a loss to explain just what happened on Saturday.
“At first it looked like we’d be home comfortably before the rain break, then we thought it was going to be a draw, then we got back on and we should have probably lost,” he said.
“It was just the range of emotions, and to win the way we did was just unreal.”
To make matters worse, he was scoring the final overs of the clash.
“I honestly couldn’t sit down at all – I was that nervous,” he said.
Looking back, it was the partnership between Wheller and Welsh that really set up the victory and Nooy was full of praise for both of them.
“That was the difference,” he said.
“Hopefully they take the next step now because they haven’t been far off. Matty has been a bit unlucky (lately) and Trav has had a few starts but I couldn’t have been happier with those two and how they played.”
