Gough and Jones lash tiring Mavericks attack
A DROPPED catch on the first ball of the match by Mavericks' captain Justin Meades may have cost his side the CI Club Championship on Saturday.
A DROPPED catch on the first ball of the match by Mavericks' captain Justin Meades may have cost his side the CI Club Championship on Saturday. There are dropped catches and there are dropped catches but Australian Meades' relatively easy chance off Old Victorians' Jonny Gough at second slip must rank as one of the most expensive in local cricket.
Gough, who was on nought at the time, went on to make 153 not out and with OV's captain Chris Jones also smashing a ton, they set a monumental 295 from 45 overs.
The Guernsey side got nowhere close in reply.
'I dropped the CI trophy on the very first ball,' said Meades.
'It only cost me 153 runs, but that's cricket. The only bloke who felt worse than me is the guy who dropped Lara on 25 when he went on to make 501.
'It was a long 45 overs in the field.'
To get to the final, Mavericks had played out of their skins to beat Guernsey weekend and evening league champions Cobo in the semi-finals. But they just could not maintain that level of performance against Old Victorians.
'We needed to bowl and field like we did against Cobo and we didn't,' said Meades.
'Obviously they are a good side and we needed to play our best cricket and we did not.'
Mavericks would have fancied their chances when they turned up to Grainville to find that their opponents were without Pete Gough, Ward Jenner, Sam Dewhurst and Chris Searson. And their hopes would have been further buoyed as they won the toss, inserted the Jersey team and with the ball doing all sorts, were restricting them nicely.
In the 17th over, Old Victorians found themselves 63 for two.
But after being dropped, Gough knuckled down, rotated the strike well and with Jones weathered the storm.
All-rounder Jones had only two runs to his name from 27 balls before he hit his first four.
After 30 overs OVs found themselves 131 for two with Gough on 83 and Jones on 14 - at which point the floodgates really opened.
'It did plenty early on and they were very scratchy but then they smashed 200 off the last 18 overs,' said Meades.
'But fair play to them - they stuck at it. Our non-youthfulness in the field showed on such a big ground.
'They played very good cricket and we didn't really play that good cricket.'
Mavericks never got going with the bat and only GH Smit made a substantial score.
'I'm very disappointed to lose,' said Meades.
'We didn't go there thinking we'd done well to get there. We went there to win it. We made it into the CI last year. We've made it to the final this year so hopefully next year we can win it.
'Congratulations to the boys for getting this far.'