Island sharks defeat OMK in an all-time classic final

ON Sunday the Phillip Island T20 team travelled over to Leongatha for the final’s day of the LDCA knockout T20 competition.

In the semi-final the Sharks easily beat Koonwarra, who won the toss and crawled to be all out in the last over for 66. The highlight being Simon Kirton with incredible figures of 5/5 off four overs. The

Sharks top order easily chased down the total in the 12th over, one wicket down. Lochie Cleeland 26 not out and Shiran Rathnayake 26 the major contributors.

This win saw the Sharks move into the final to take on the talented OMK side at Scorpion Park.

After winning the toss, the Island boys batted first hoping to put some scoreboard pressure with a big total. Lochie and Shiran got the innings underway, with both batters putting the pressure on the bowling side early with some sharp running and boundary hitting. Lochie was dismissed in the 6th over for 21 with the score on 45. 

This brought to the crease Daniel Mock who continued to keep the score moving along, as he found the boundaries. Just as the Sharks were looking to up the ante, Shiran was out caught and bowled for a well-made 31. 

The Sharks now 2/79 in the 10th over. two more wickets for no runs saw the Sharks scrambling to get the pads on as they fell to 4 for 79. Tom Niven joined Mock at the crease as the pair looked to resurrect the innings through good running and clever placement. 

The partnership lasted until the 18th over with the score on 124 when Mock was dismissed for 41. Niven was dismissed late for a mature 21 and the Sharks finished on 7 for 133, a little short of what they would like but a tricky chase ensued for the Diggers.

Heath Womersley opened with his swing bowling and looked ominous early. Bowling without luck in the early overs the Diggers looked to be progressing nicely before a great catch from Zac Brown who was parked under a skied ball off the bowling of league legend Charith, as they removed the dangerous Ethan Lamers for 20. 

Some more sharp fielding from Shiran saw a run out and the second wicket lost for the over. With score now on 2 for 38 off six overs, the game was very much in the balance.

Some tight bowling from Tom Niven and Charith kept the run rate manageable but a plucky partnership was starting to turn the game in the Diggers favour. Tom eventually bowling the hard hitting

Riaz and adding another twist to the match, with the Diggers now 3 for 78. 

Another little partnership formed before Kirton was introduced with immediate effect removing the opposing skipper Brann for 40 with the score now 107 with 3 overs left.

Some sharp work from Kurt Lane in the deep was able to produce a much-needed run out and next ball Shiran skittled another OMK batter and the equation became 16 runs off 9 balls with 4 wickets in hand. 

What happened next will be told for many years. After a dot ball, the next two balls sailed over the fence from the bat of Clayton Quaife, leaving the Diggers needing only 4 runs to win off the last over and the Sharks hopes looked gone. Enter Simon Kirton, who along with some questionable decisions from the opposing team, bowled the perfect over. 

The first ball was a knocked into the ground and fell into of keeper Lochie Cleeland who managed to throw the stumps down to execute a smart stumping from 10 metres back. Another perfect ball led to panic from the OMK batters and saw Simon pick up a run out off his own bowling. 

The next ball was a sharply taken leg bye before a textbook Yorker seeing Quaife head back to the sheds as his stumps were skittled. The equation now 3 to win off 2 balls with 1 wicket in hand. 

Simon with another well bowled wide Yorker produced a play and miss as the batsmen set off for a run taking on Lochie again, who as cool as you like threw the stumps down to dismiss the Diggers 2 runs short, in one of the all-time classic finals’ games.

The win makes it 3 T20 titles in a row and another piece of silverware for the Sharks.

Player of the final was adjudged to be the captain Daniel Mock; however, a number of people could have made a case to receive the award.