Moama batter Madeline Davy gets behind the line. Photos: Christian Marchetti
It was total tension as Moama and Echuca’s Goulburn Murray women’s cricket encounter on Sunday was decided on the final delivery.
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Just ask Mowers coach Peter Bray how it felt watching on, as his side did just enough to win by two runs.
“Oh, it was pretty tense,” he said.
“Because we only made 75, which wasn’t really a total we wanted.
“At the same time we knew it was a pretty hard pitch to a bat on because everything was keeping pretty low, so if you bowl pretty straight at the stumps, it was difficult to get it away.”
Davy turns for two.
But all pitches affect both teams.
Echuca’s etched runs at just as slow a rate.
At the end of the 19th over, it was 9/71.
Just five more to its total and it would knock off the undefeated Mowers, on their own turf.
Echuca’s Olivia Goodes with the delivery.
Moama star Delaney Laffy was tasked with leading the side home with the ball.
Fitting, given she’s the captain.
The 20th would start with four of the first five deliveries being dots.
Laffy’s late line and length had produced right when Moama needed it.
Then suddenly, she bowled a wide, giving Echuca’s Olivia Goodes one last chance to smash the winning runs.
“She basically needed a six to win it, which made you think, ‘Okay we should win from here’, but it also only takes one shot,” Bray said.
Davy and Sophie Millar talk it over.
But Laffy delivered another timely dot.
Her approach in the final over was well-thought-out, rolling her finger across the seam to prune the pace.
And spoke to the broader development of Bray’s brigade.
In a scary sight for the rest of the competition, this side, having already had much success, continues to add more beyond the basics.
“It's not just about being able to bat and bowl,” Bray said.
“It's also about executing game plans, knowing what to bowl to who.
“All of those things probably helped us out a little bit, also some of the fielding decisions we made, the field placements.
“Little things like dropping a fielder back on the fence for Sharon Henson, who hits it pretty hard, but then when she's off strike bringing the field back in.
“It’s strategy that the players are learning.”
Lucinda McMaster-Sharrock slings one down the wicket.
A team continuing to learn while being 3-0, and equal-top, to open the new season.
Nagambie has the same record, but it’s difficult to argue the road still won’t go through Moama.
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