From a position that was seemingly hopeless, the Collars somehow managed to work back into the game against Kerwin's Mob, and pull off one of the great indoor cricket victories!
Pre-game
Three players that night (Xavier, Omar and Adam) had played in a grand final at Kambah the previous day where their team had batted first and only scored 69... but through some outstanding bowling and fielding, managed to defend the total. Little did they know at the time, however, that the story of that game would be outdone the very next day (admittedly it was not in a final).
The Match
Popped Collars batted first, having been sent in by the opposition. Brad and Sanjit, who seem to be the new opening partnership, smashed it around early. The bowling was made to look bad, and the fielding was well below average. It looked very likely to turn into an uninteresting and one-sided match.
Adam and Omar also looked comfortable for 2 overs, and then Kerwin's Mob decided to switch on.
For the rest of the innings they took catches and stumpings, and threw run-outs, making life difficult for the rest of the Popped Collars batters. Omar and Adam went backwards for their last two overs, Matt and Xavier struggled to get the ball away for runs, and even Gareth and Rian were unable to put on their usual solid score to finish off.
Popped Collars ended with just 14 from their last 3 pairs to post a meager total of 74.
The game was pretty much wrapped-up after Kerwin's Mob put on 64 for their first pair. And the result was beyond doubt when the second pair walked off having made a respectable 20. The third pair continued to put on runs for 2 overs, getting their team to a 20 run lead. And then they switched off again...
"Self-destructed" may be a better description than just "switched off" - wickets continually fell, and with each one, the Popped Collars confidence rose. Jokes started to be made comparing the game to the previous night's Kambah final. As the opposition score crept further and further back, the "jokes" slowly morphed into "possible outcomes".
Only one of the final 6 overs were positive scoring, and that was when the final batters started getting their entire body behind every ball Adam bowled in attempt to protect their wicket.
With one ball to go, somehow, the teams found themselves with scores level.
Needing just 1 to salvage a win, the left-handed batsman got in behind the final ball from Rian, poking it away on the off-side. Gareth picked it up cleanly, and launched one of his characteristic rocket throws which was uncharacteristicly accurate. Rian tapped the throw down from directly above the stumps, and the batsman was caught short of his ground!
There was a brief exclamation of complaint about the run-out decision from Kerwin's Mob both on and off the court - probably not because they believed it was a bad call, just from sheer disbelief that they had lost the match.
The final score was 74-69 with the ridiculous-looking scorecard showing the following scores per skin:
| Popped Collars | 60 | 5 | 5 | 4 |
| Kerwin's Mob | 64 | 20 | -5 | -10 |
Stats
Here are some stats from this classic match...
A flying start: Sanjit hit the first ball faced for 7. He has only done this twice before. Both previous times were in 2011, and both previous times he was batting with Andy Ragg.
Leg-sides: Sanjit also faced 6 leg-sides in a row during his time at the crease. This is an equal record for consecutive extras by a bowler in one over. It equals the six that were bowled by Sanjit himself in a game in 2013.
Before this, there has never been 6 extras of the same type (wide/leg-side/no-ball) in a row. The previous longest streak was 4. When Sanjit bowled his 6-in-a-row he bowled LLWLLL.
Losing after leading: Only twice in the past has the team batting second hit the lead and then gone on to lose the game - on both of those occasions the team only briefly took the lead during the final over of the match:
Way back in 2010, the 4Skins managed to take a wicket off the last ball of the match to defeat the Popped Collars by 2. Then in 2013, at Kaleen, Underarm led by 4 runs with 5 balls to go, but struggled to even get bat on ball as those 5 balls went: 0-0-Wicket-0-0.
Never before has a team lost after leading by so many (Kerwin's Mob were 20 up at one stage), nor with so much of the game to go (they first hit the lead after 6.3 overs).
Low-scoring wins: It is the lowest winning score by the Popped Collars. The only lower winning score in one of our matches was when we failed to chase a total of 60 set by Underarm in a 6-a-side game in 2013. The previous lowest winning score for our team was 89, but in that case we were batting second, chasing just 76.
Defending a total: Previously, the lowest we have defended after batting first was 87 against It's On Like Donkey Kong in May last year - we kept them to 77 as they tried to chase down our rather low score.
Final pair failure: The final pair for Kerwin's Mob required a score of -4 or more to win the game, but failed to get it. This crushed the previous record for a final skin failing to win the game - it used to be 25. That has happened twice before, and one of them was just a few weeks ago when Gareth and Rian were unable to make 25 against the Thrill Killers.
In fairness, G's throw was probably hitting the stumps...I just wanted to make sure.
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