In the Firing Line: Diary of a Season by Ed Cowan

Author:Ed Cowan
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: NewSouth Publishing

Had I been asked at the start of the season about our chances of lifting the Sheffield Shield, I would have slapped my belly and laughed. Not because of a shortage of ability – it's just that with our dry summers of late, Bellerive Oval has been a hard place to regularly take 20 wickets. Pushing James Faulkner to six and Luke Butterworth to seven to increase our bowling options also seemed to leave us thin in batting. And yet…and yet…We ended the game against WA today in equal first position on the Shield table. Turns out I probably didn't factor in Ben Hilfenhaus' attendance for as much of the season, nor the rapid improvement and fitness of Adam Maher, nor James Faulkner's wicket-taking ability. But really, it's the stuff of mystery: of confidence, momentum, team spirit and belief.

Today again, the bowlers were exceptional: banging brilliant lengths, forcing the batters to play at balls they generally didn't have to, nibbling the ball a little bit off the seam (proving how poorly they had bowled), and most importantly bowling in partnership and suffocating errors out of the opposition. The captain could have asked no more of them. Luke Butterworth is now the competition's leading wickettaker – one of those quiet achievers who produces wickettaking ‘jaffas’ often enough to dislodge good players when they are set.

Adam Maher, our mature-age recruit who possesses a beautiful flowing action reminiscent of Andrew Flintoff, a sharp sense of humour and the ability to hit the wicket hard in the ‘avenue of apprehension’, has certainly come to grips with the rigours of first-class bowling and now has his wickets at 19 a piece. Mix in Xavier and Hilfy, and we have the bowlers to take 20 wickets at every ground around the country, regardless of conditions.

The only dark moment of the day was Luke's 99. He so very much deserved a hundred, but played this morning like it meant too much to him and he had had little sleep thinking about it overnight. His dismissal produced a collective gasp of disbelief and disappointment. His consolation was being named Man of the Match for his efforts – the third time he has had the honour this season. Most importantly, our cordon is catching everything. Our new 19-year-old keeper Tom Triffitt buoys me – he is a scallywag, but he's got some substance to him. The dressing room is full of belief and trust; the leadership is strong; our one-day blues don't seem to have done any harm. We're peaking at the right time, with three weeks left.

Later…

NSW and Victoria have just finished an epic battle. Both teams should have won; both teams should have lost. Eventually with 2 needed off the last three balls, the set batsman, 9 down, attempted to pull Dirk Nannes to win the game, but only succeeded in lobbing a return catch.

The result means we have snuck into the one-day final via the back door. Huge screams of jubilation could be heard down each

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.