The Sav's great escape

Peter Roebuck

Last night saw the mighty Sav’s play to secure a spot in the finals and finish 3rd place on the ladder.

Things didn’t get off to such a great start with stand in captain for 5 secs, while the main captain Arjuna was practising his stoke play, Hollywood lost the toss. Being sent into bat the Sav’s looked very relaxed and ready to turn on a show.

All that practise before the game must has done Arjuna some good, as he finally started to hit the ball well and worked the nets. Batting with the unit him self “Kel”, they formed a good partnership and the score board was ticketing over faster then then a dog eating a bone. Finishing the skin on 41, it gave the Sav’s the foundation that they needed.

The next pairing comprised of Hollywood and Slick. Slick was under a lot of pressure to perform this week after a batting display last week that could only be described a “Crap”. The crowd in bay “End of the Net” were also having a few digs, yelling out “Give us a wind mill Slick”. Putting his head down saw the pairing place a solid total of 38 on the board.

Out walked the masters of the net, Tucan and Ocky. Looking to improve on recent weeks performances, they started off well and were looking solid. The brothers in arms were working the net, but then things turned for the worse with a couple of flucky run outs and catching saw the pair come back to only place 31 on the board. Ocky was quote in saying “This is bull, I need to score runs and I’m feed up of all this pressure that is placed on me, place it on Tucan!!!” The Sav’s were now in a great position to stamp their foot down.

Out walked Mr First Grade aka Tempter and Reebs. With his head struggling to fit into the net, Tempter showed why he was selected to play 1’s last week. Brilliant stroke play and great running. Unfortunately this was only a dream and the boys helped the total to a solid 21 and finished the team with 132 on the board.

For the first time all season there was some cockiness creeping into the Sav’s as they thought they had already won the game before they started bowling. There was no talk in the field and things were quite. The turning point in the game was when Tucan took the catch of the season. The crowd went nuts and Ocky was kissing and hugging him like no tomorrow as his catch won the skin!!! It will be in the memory of everyone who saw it for years to come as he stretch full length to his right, plucked it from mid air and rolled 3 times to hold the catch.

The Sav’s were alive and things started to turn, winning the first 3 skins the Sav’s looked like they had the game in the bag.
But the opposition started to fight back and things were getting tense. With the last over needing 11 runs to win it was up to Tucan to win the game. With 3 balls to go, they needed 2 runs to win and things looked like they were going pair shaped for the Sav’s. But the next to balls saw a caught behind and a run out and the Sav’s were victorious again.

Marching into the finals the Sav’s knew they just got away with that win.

A massive crowd is expected next week to see the Sav’s take on the Newtown Mongerals to move onto the next round and one stepcloser to the Grand Final

In breaking news there has been some uproar in the selection of the team for Monday. Insiders say there could be a couple of moves on Monday night that will place pressure on the Sav’s. Whoever is selected will be trying their hardest to keep their spot as a number of ‘Guns” will be back in for the next game.