By Marcus Uhe
The ‘nervous 90s’ are an uncomfortable time for all batters, let alone someone approaching their first ever hundred.
Just ask Springvale South’s Mitch Forsyth.
His season had contained plenty of starts (28, 16, 21, 10, 30, 36 and 19) but up until Saturday there was no big score yet to capitalise on those foundations.
So as the runs piled-up against St Mary’s at Carroll Reserve, the rollercoaster of emotions set off.
“I’d been struggling this season to get past 30 and 40, which is almost my role for the team, to hang around, see off the new ball,” Forsyth said.
“We’ve got a pretty powerful line-up so I don’t really have to hang around too often, but it’s been a bit of a frustration, so when I got 50 I was actually rapt.
“After that I started to score quite freely and one of the boys ran out to say that I was on 90 and I thought, ‘I’m starting to get a bit nervous now,’ having never made a hundred or even got past 80 before.
“When I got to 99 they ran out a drink again and said that I’m on 99, and I started to get really nervous because I’d never got one and didn’t really know what to do.”
Taking strike at the start of the over, just one run away, he calmly blocked the first delivery back to the bowler for a dot ball.
The second, a fuller ball on his pads, saw Forsyth drop to one knee and paddle the ball around the corner to a vacant square leg, and off he went.
Having taken a deflection off his pad on the way through, all that was left was for the umpire to award the stroke as runs, and not leg-byes.
But of course, umpires don’t signal for runs.
The batter knew, his teammates knew, and seemingly the umpire knew, but the moment of glory had to wait a few more agonising seconds.
“I kept calm and was almost showing him my bat, almost like saying ‘please don’t call a leg bye’. The boys went up, and it was such a special moment for me, I was rapt,” Forsyth said.
“The boys said it was very anticlimactic and that I should have just celebrated halfway through (the run) so that he didn’t have a decision to make, but I didn’t want to look like an idiot so I just held off and got the big cheer, then had a bit of a celebration which was nice.”
After removing his helmet and acknowledging him teammates, including his brother, Cam, he was swallowed in a hearty embrace by his opening partner Ryan Quirk, who appeared more excited with his teammate’s milestone than his own in the previous over.
“I’ve grown up with ‘Quirky’ and his family and my family are really close, so even just as an opening partner we have a lot of fun out there,” Forsyth said.
“Specifically on advice, I think the only thing that he suggested was, when someone said I was on 90, we were scoring quite quickly runs-wise, and team-wise we were quite comfortable.
“He said to me, ‘just try to hit 10 singles, opportunities like this to make 100 in Turf 1 don’t come around too often,’ so he was really good.
“I was thinking something silly, like, should I try and hit another boundary? But he said, ‘go for the 10 singles because the team’s in a really good position and these opportunities don’t come around too often,’ so that was the biggest thing.’
Finishing not out on 149, the two shared in a flawless 248-run opening stand, a new club record at the Bloods, putting their side in a commanding position, before their bowlers rammed-home the advantage, dismissing St Mary’s for 94 to secure a 202-run victory.
Josh Dowling and the returning Matt Wetering took three wickets each, with Wetering also contributing a run out.
“We’re always trying to keep the foot on the throat and we know that in finals any team can take the game away from you on any day, so we really wanted to stick to what we’re about and get the job done, which we were able to do quite convincingly in the end, which was pleasing for sure,” Forsyth said.
For the defending champions of Turf 1, Forsyth said there’s hunger in the group to go back-to-back, and will be tested in the coming weeks with fixtures against North Dandenong and Buckley Ridges.
“We’re pretty clear on what we need to do, we’re sitting quite comfortable at 8-0, which is really pleasing, but the biggest thing is that we’ve still got quite a bit that we can work on, we’ve still got another level that we can go to,” he said.
“We’re very aware that on any day, anyone can win it, especially in finals when the pressure’s up and there’s a little bit more on the line.”
The crushing result means Buckley Ridges could barely gain any ground on their rivals, despite themselves recording a solid win over Berwick.
In similar scenes at Park Oval, Buckley too racked-up a mammoth total thanks to Daniel Watson and Jayson Hobbs’ contributions up top.
The two added 121 for the first wicket, as Watson (85) registered his second consecutive half-century and Hobbs (72) his second score of 50-plus for the season.
Watson in particular took to the Berwick bowlers, reaching 50 off 23 balls and bludgeoning 68 runs in boundaries as the fielders grew accustomed to the surrounds of Dandenong Park.
A sturdy 65 from skipper Ben Wright and contributions from their bevy of allrounders pushed their total to 7-297.
Riley Siwes, Lachlan Brown and Andrew Perrin all grabbed two wickets each for the visitors, and Perrin also striking Hobbs on the hand, who was forced to attend a medical clinic after the game.
Needing something big from their opening pair, Berwick could hardly have gotten off to a worse start, as Lachlan Brown was sent packing for a globe in the opening over.
Captain Jake Hancock and veteran Matt Chasemore added a valuable 67 runs for the third wicket, but Chasemore’s dismissal triggered a collapse of 8-97.
Watson’s contributions with the bat were matched by his efforts with the ball, grabbing 4-28 to make it seven wickets in his last two games and 12 for the year.
Left arm spinner Sanka Dinesh grabbed three, including the prized wicket of Hancock for 71.
At Hallam Rec Reserve, two wickets in the opening over from William Whyte put the Hawks on top early, and from there the men in brown and gold never looked back against Narre South.
The right-armer grabbed the crucial scalps of Lions captain Kyle Hardy and Jonty Jenner to have them reeling at 2-2, both gone without troubling the scorers.
It was the perfect start to the game for the Hawks, and coach Matthew Cox is excited by the form his opening bowler has shown in recent weeks.
“When Will’s up and about early with the new ball, there’s not many better new-ball bowlers in the comp,” Cox said.
“He takes four or five games to get his season going but now he’s hit his straps and we saw last week, he bowled another 12 overs and was the pick of the bowlers both weeks.
“When he can bowl 12 (overs) like that, it takes a lot of pressure off Jordy (Hammond) if he can take early wickets.”
Regular wickets, including Jeevan Mendis for only 24, kept the Lions to 6-177 from their 45, which was reached by the Hawks in the second-last over.
“Lethal” Leigh Booth anchored the chase with 91, picking gaps in the field with regularity, before he was bowled with his hundred in sight.
It leaves the Hawks continuing to jostle with Buckley Ridges for that crucial second-place spot in the top four, which would grant them the crucial double-chance.
Three points behind Buckley, the message from Cox is simple.
“We just focus on what we can control; keep winning and give ourselves a shot at winning the second spot,” he said.
“So with Buckley, we just go, we’re only three points behind them.
“If we just keep winning, we’ve still got to play them last game of the season.
“Hopefully we can just keep winning and get to that game, and then whatever happens there happens.”
Muhammad Dawa Khan and Sushant Gupta ensured Parkmore’s miserable season continued, combining to take all 10 wickets in North Dandenong’s four-wicket win at Wachter Reserve.
Gupta (4-47) removed Chirath Uralagamage (one) Dulan Waduge (eight) and Johann Brohier (one) in quick succession to have the Pirates in trouble at 3-17, which saw Amal Athulathmudali join Mohomad Safras for a 80-run partnership.
Both passed 50 on their way to their side’s 207 as Khan cleaned-up the lower order and tail to grab career-best figures of 6-39.
Ramneet Dhindsa continued a consistent season for the Maroons with 56 at the top of the order, his second 50 of the season and fourth score above 40, to steer the chase home in the 39th over.
With all top-four sides winning, it means no change to the ladder positions at the end of round 10.
Springvale South still lead Buckley Ridges, Hallam Kalora Park and North Dandenong in the following four finals positions, with Narre South, St Mary’s, Berwick and Parkmore all on the outside looking in.
