Batting: Eric Tunningley 69*, Eddie Tunningley 25, Alex Moore 23

Bowling: Lachlan Hendrie 1/11, Oscar Moore 1/12, Henry Platt 1/12, Abhinav Vangala 1/15

The miracle at Deakin

As coach, umpire, proud dad, and this week’s willow talk author I feel I’m allowed to give a bit of over-the-top praise to my own son if he does well… so please forgive this indulgence 😉

Playing WCMCC at Deakin 2, captain Alex continued his streak with the toss and Marist was sent into the field. Wickets were hard to come by as Weston Creek’s star batters seemed to be firing. Four wickets fell and were shared among Lachlan, Oscar, Henry, and Abi. Abi snared two catches, including one off his own bowling, and Josh grabbed one off Oscar’s bowling. Lachy’s wicket came in the rare form of ‘Hit Wicket’ with his crafty bowling pushing the batter back onto his stumps. Bowling for the most part was tight, however, anything loose was pounced on. Their big three posted scores of 47, 37, and 36 anchoring their innings and combining to set a tough target of 174.

What followed was something worthy of a Hollywood movie…

Weston Creek started strongly with the ball. Some quality bowling saw Marist at 3/5 after the first three overs. As the wickets fell, 4/14, 5/39, parents on the sidelines could be seen making early lunch plans. Alex offered some resistance and was soon joined by Eric. Alex’s quickfire 23 came to an end as he skied one to mid-wicket. Once again parents were thinking “ham sandwiches or chicken wraps for lunch?”. It was also around this time that Mr. Hutchison arrived, perhaps he had a premonition that something amazing was about to take place. Eric had his eye in and started to dismantle every bowler they threw at him. With each boundary the excitement and belief grew. These were not consolation runs, these runs were getting us back in the game. Soon Eric was joined by younger brother Eddie who wanted to join in the boundaryfest. With the runs flowing, Eric notched up his 50 with a four to square leg. All of the sudden, from being 5/39 after ten overs, Marist was 7/139 after 20! Eddie departed for 25 (20 of which came in boundaries), having done his job to bring the target within reach. The cool head of Oscar arrived at the crease and gave great support as Eric continued his accumulation of runs. Eric retired briefly after facing his 45 balls but was soon out in the middle again at the fall of the ninth wicket. With only four runs to get, Eric and Oscar finished the job in singles. And with that, the game was won, Eric on 69* and Oscar 13*. Eric was fittingly (and awkwardly) carried off the field much to the delight of the adoring crowd who knew they had just seen something special. Perhaps if Mr. Hutchison was ever to be canonized, this game could be sited as one of his miracles 😇

Again, apologies for the shameless favouritism of this writeup, but hopefully those who witnessed the game would somewhat agree with the summation.