The moment that mattered in Division 2 final

EVERYTHING had to go right for MDU if their meagre total of 112 runs was to be enough to win their A Grade Division 2 Grand Final against the undefeated Korumburra on the Leongatha Turf at the weekend.

Inserted into bat by Korumburra captain Rumesh "Jimmy" Rangana, after inspecting a couple of damp patches on the pitch on Saturday morning, and with the prospect the ball might move around in the morning's overcast conditions, the Cobras got the early breakthrough when Steve Arnup received an absolute peach of a ball from Steve Hamill.

His second delivery of the match reared up and moved away making it almost unplayable except by a batsman in form and unfortunately for Arnup, he feathered it through to Peter Edwards in first slip.

It was just what the Burra needed to get the match started on their terms and despite a stoic innings of 44 by Mitch McGrath off 156 balls faced, the MDU wickets fell at regular intervals, keeping the Korumburra fieldsmen on their toes throughout, and MDU was ultimately out after 60.4 overs for just 112.

But cricket’s a funny game and with Korumburra making a tentative start on Saturday afternoon, facing 29 overs before stumps, they lost two early wickets and could have been in all sorts if the comp’s best player, batsman and bowler, Inshaka Siriwardena, had been run out, as he surely should have been, when stranded in the middle of the wicket just as Korumburra was trying to stabilize their response.

However, the return to the keeper sailed a metre or more over his head, Siriwardena scrambled back to where he came from and the moment was lost.

After facing 17 balls, Korumburra opener Harshika Fernando hit out aggressively at a delivery from Mark Cantwell and was caught by Ben Cantwell at midwicket and not long after, Cory Arnold was caught behind off Cantwell again, this time by the MDU captain Joel Sinclair in slips.

Korumburra was forced to rethink its strategy with Cantwell really bending his back and MDU up and about in the field.

The runout opportunity was the potential game-changing moment, if not putting MDU in the driver’s seat, at least turning it into a real contest when the teams returned on Sunday.

But it wasn't to be. Korumburra’s Jacob Whiteside and Inshaka Siriwardena played conservatively to stumps and returned the next day to push the scoring on towards victory Siriwardena leading the way with a half century, whilst giving up another chance in the field, and Whiteside untroubled at the other end, finishing with a solid 39 not out.

Predictably Siriwardena was named man of the match for his 5/26 off 13 and score of 58 not out but the umpires Steve McNamara and Ian Thorn nominated several other very good performances including Mitch McGrath's standout innings of 44 for MDU, Steve Hamill's strong opening bowling for Korumburra and Mark Cantwell's bowling effort for MDU taking 2/8 off 10 overs to have Korumburra on the back foot in the opening stages of their innings, a fair effort in the circumstances.

Speaking at the presentations afterwards, Korumburra captain Jimmy Rangana said "discipline" was the catchphrase for Korumburra's unbeaten season, for everything from being on time for training and doing what was asked at training, to the approach on gameday. He said the club was now looking forward to being competitive in A Grade Division 1 and the return of Inshaka Siriwardena after a first-class season in Sri Lanka, starting next week, will be crucial to the performance of what is otherwise a good, young side.

Siriwardena said he fully intends to return next summer to Korumburra but at 23 years of age, he still has ambitions of playing at the highest level in Sri Lanka and maybe beyond.