By Marcus Uhe
As Blade Baxter strode to the crease at 4/52 in the 14th over, Springvale South’s season was on the line.
The Bloods, who had finished on-top of the table after an undefeated home-and-away season, had just lost 4/13 against a jubilant Hallam Kalora Park side, embracing their underdog status and playing with nothing to lose, gunning for a return to the grand final which they won in 2020/2021.
Lauchlan Gregson had just dismissed Jordan Wyatt and Jackson Sketcher in consecutive deliveries, and Jordan Hammond was charging in at the other end, sniffing the possibility of leading his side to an upset.
Bloods’ skipper and the competition’s leading run-scorer, Ryan Quirk, was watching helplessly from the sidelines in his Springvale South white cricket shirt as he navigated the spectators on his crutches, nursing a fracture in his foot.
Baxter could be forgiven for thinking that his major contribution for the day was out of the way.
The left-armer, who’s been a consistent contributor with both bat and ball throughout the year, bowled brilliantly earlier in the contest, taking 4/46 as the Bloods held Hallam Kalora Park to 160.
Unlike last week in which he didn’t bowl until the 21st over, stand-in captain Wyatt tossed him the Kookaburra after 10 overs, needing a breakthrough with Leigh Booth and Jagveer Hayer looking comfortable at the wicket.
The opening bowling pair of Yoshan Kumara and Josh Dowling bowled 13 extras between them in the first six overs, and while the run rate was not getting out of hand, the quality of Booth in particular meant they could not afford to let them get away to a good start.
“It was about trying to slow down momentum more than anything,” Baxter said, of being handed the ball early.
“Usually ‘Strakes’ (Jarryd Straker) and I do that through the middle, depending on the wind.
“I’m more utilised to contain, so he wanted me to sneak through a couple of maidens which I think we did, I think I went for maybe three runs in my first three overs.”
Baxter’s introduction to the crease caused instant issues for the batters, with Booth struck on the pads twice in one of Baxter’s early overs.
The partnership was broken on 67 when Kumara and Paul Hill combined for a run-out after some indecision from batters left Booth short of his ground on 31.
Having done what was asked of him, Baxter stepped-aside as Straker and Jackson Sketcher combined to squeeze the Hawks into submission in the middle overs.
Sketcher (2/17 off seven) and finger spinner Straker (0/8 from seven with four maidens) were at their miserly best, not allowing a boundary to be struck between the 19th and 31st overs, where just 12 runs were scored.
They were ably supported behind the stumps by Hill, who turned in what Baxter described as an “unbelievable” performance.
Having caught Hayer while keeping-up to Sketcher’s medium pace, he then produced a slick stumping down the leg side of Sketcher again to remove Matthew Cox for seven.
He grabbed another while keeping-up to Baxter to dismiss Ben Hillard, and grabbed two more catches to finish with five dismissals.
Baxter was effusive in his praise for last year’s premiership captain, describing him as a game-changer for their side.
“I think wicket-keeping is one of the most unrewarding crafts of cricket; no one says anything when you do your job, because you’re expected to do it, but everyone remembers the bad stuff,” Baxter said.
“Some of the catches and stumpings he’s taken in the last two years, that I’ve played with him, have been unbelievable.
“He’s got no fear, he comes up to the stumps to anyone.
“He actually makes the decision to come up to the stumps to me a lot of the time and I haven’t really had that a lot in my career.
“It just changes the game; batters start doing weird things, their feet stop moving.
“He’s a warrior, he’s the type of bloke you love playing with and he’s a quiet achiever, just goes about his business and gets the job done.”
Following Ben Hillard’s dismissal at 5/95, Hammond began to free his arms to ensure he and his fellow bowlers had something to defend.
The final 10 overs elicited 67 runs, with the captain top-scoring with 40 off 66 to set Springvale South 161 for victory.
The task…a small chase on their home deck with a quality batting line-up that had set the benchmark all season to play-off for a second consecutive premiership!
The equation seemed simple, and in Jordan Mackenzie and Mitch Forsyth, the Bloods reached 39 before Hammond got through Forsyth’s defences.
When Mackenzie, Wyatt and Sketcher all departed in nine balls of Hawks hysteria, Baxter was asked to play the role of match-winner once again.
“I know they were up and about when they got those two wickets in a row, of Jordy (Wyatt) and ‘Sketch’, and then I came in with Cam (Forsyth),” he said.
“Cam and I have been in that situation a few times this season where we’ve had to re-consolidate and build a partnership, I think we’ve done it three or four times this year.
“We were pretty confident, we both know our games quite well, we rotate the strike and we’re quite busy, so we run quite well between the wickets.”
Baxter and Forsyth had put on 112 to chase a similar total against Berwick in round 13, while scores of 42 against Narre South in round nine and 46 against Buckley Ridges in round 12 from the all-rounder proved vital in maintaining their unblemished record during the home-and-away season.
But upholding an undefeated streak in the regular season, and cut-throat preliminary finals, are a different beast.
Forsyth chopped-on in the first ball after drinks and the stakes were raised even higher.
81 off 137 meant the equation was still in the Bloods’ favour, but with only five wickets remaining, the objective had changed.
“With the new batters that came out, we were trying to tick it off in groups of 10,” Baxter said.
“Yosh (Kumara) and I said, ‘tick off 10 at a time’.
“We knew the run rate never really got out of control, I think it got to five at one stage and that was about as high as it got.
“I think it was about keeping wickets in the shed and ticking the runs over as best we could.
“They bowled really well.”
Much like the first innings, the Bloods didn’t find the boundary rope between the 20th and 30th over, as the colourful bowling pair of Whyte and Lee Brown seized the opportunity to apply a sleeper-hold of their own.
With the game in the balance as Hammond and Cox accessed their mental abacus’ to manage their bowlers’ remaining overs, the ball was thrown to Booth, who had been used sparingly in the back half of the season for the Hawks.
Booth was wayward, bowling a knee-high full toss, two wides and two no-balls in a 10-ball over that provided some brief respite for Springvale South, and forced Hammond to bring himself back on.
When he removed Kumara in his first over back, his third wicket in what was becoming a special performance from the previous Wookey medallist, his Hawks were now four wickets away from an unlikely grand final berth as the run rate drew nearer to a run-a-ball.
If the Bloods were to earn the opportunity to go back-to-back, it was going to be due to Baxter and Hill, the stars of the bowling innings, to do it with the bat.
In a total of six innings between the Springvale South tail-end of Straker, Josh Dowling and Matt Wetering this season, the trio had managed a combined 21 runs.
When Hammond stepped to the crease for the 41st, and his last over, the Bloods needed 25 from 30, while the Hawks needed one wicket to expose the brittle tail.
A single and three dots to begin the over had the crowd on the edge of their seats, and was shaping as a brilliant way to close what had been a spell that would go down in Turf 1 folklore.
A wide on the fifth ball prompted a change in line, which Baxter had been sweating on, and took full advantage.
“It was a bit of a weird one because Jordy was bowling really well,” he said.
“I played-and-missed three balls in a row with those big off-cutters he was bowling, and if I nick one of them, then who knows what happens.
“But I was just hoping he would bowl a little straighter and my plan was, if he bowls straight, I’m going to try and hit him over his head.”
Bowl straight and hit him over his head is exactly what transpired.
Baxter connected with a glorious straight drive that seemed to hang in their air for an eternity, as the fielder rounded the boundary sensing an opportunity for a breakthrough.
Cries of “caaaaaaaatch” echoed around Harold Road and the Springvale surrounds, followed by an uncomfortable silence, before leather met aluminium with a shattering thud as the ball landed on the roof of the interchange bench at the nature reserve end.
“To be honest I’ve never really played a shot like that before, I was thinking that I just wanted to chip the ball back over his head for two,” Baxter said.
“But sometimes you get it out of the middle and it goes all the way.
“It came off the bat pretty well and I was pretty confident to be honest, I hit it straight enough that even if the fielder had come around, that hopefully it would have been four if it hadn’t have gone all the way.”
It reduced the equation to just 15 required off the final four overs, which they reached in the penultimate set of six, as Baxter clipped an on-drive to the rope for four, with nine balls remaining.
“Dream catch me” by Newton Faulkner blared from the Bloods’ change rooms in the fading sunlight as the realisation that they has qualified for another finale began to set in.
The place they’ll go? Berwick’s Arch Brown Reserve, as Buckley Ridges await.
