A PAIR of the South East’s best helped South Australia’s veterans cricket side claim its maiden John Hammer Cup in the 2019 Over 60 national championships at Adelaide last week.
Yahl’s Colin Murdock and Penola’s Phillip Dohnt were key contributors in the state’s drought-breaking win against the country’s best veteran cricketers.
South Australia went undefeated across its four-match campaign, an impressive achievement after it previously struggled at the competition.
In the last two national championships, South Australia had not won a single game, but it overcame the likes of Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales to lift the trophy for the first time.
Dohnt said it was a great feeling to finally achieve success at the competition after two years of bad luck.
“We were pretty rapt,” he said.
South Australia began its campaign with an against-the-odds win over Queensland.
The South Australians batted first and posted a slightly under-par 7/120.
Queensland appeared on track to chase the total at 1/46, but a sudden collapse of 4/1 turned the game in South Australia’s favour.
Led by Dohnt’s 2/15, South Australia bowled out its fancied opposition for just 83 to claim its first John Hammer Cup victory in over two years.
Dohnt said the breakthrough win gave his teammates the belief to compete against the best.
“Queensland are one of the top sides,” he said.
“To bowl them out for around 80 gave us great encouragement.
“It followed us through the competition because we had a bit more belief in ourselves.”
After South Australia eased past ACT by five wickets, its final pool game was against a powerful Victorian side with a grand final berth on the line.
South Australia batted first again and set Victoria 135 runs to win after Murdoch top scored with 23.
Once again the match appeared to be drifting away from the South Australians, as the opposition’s top order progressed to 1/67.
But South Australia fought back into the contest with consistent wickets through the middle overs.
Victoria was in trouble at 7/102, but its tail wagged and the nerves grew as the eighth-wicket pair crawled closer to the target.
The dramatic match went down to the final ball, but after 89 overs of play, nothing could separate the sides and a thrilling tie was the result.
Dohnt was tasked with the high-pressure role of bowling the final over and he said it was a relief to avoid defeat and to hold onto the grand final spot.
“We only scored a small total, but we just kept chipping away at Victoria,” he said.
“They only needed two and half runs an over, but we just kept nailing the wickets.
“I was bowling the last over and they needed seven runs to win.
“They scored a single off each ball, but tried to go for the match-winning second run on the last delivery and got run out.
“The result was great for us because it meant we could not get kicked out of the grand final.”
The dramatic tie set up a date with a formidable New South Wales outfit in the decider.
South Australia batted first and produced its top score of 8/138.
New South Wales struggled to break free from South Australia’s tight bowling and fielding unit, as consistent wickets troubled the favourite’s run chase.
Despite another low-order fightback, South Australia held on to claim the prize by 17 runs after a tight game which went down to the final over.
Dohnt said the victory was down to a flawless effort in the field, led by a game-changing catch.
“New South Wales is the benchmark team and we just kept at them with the ball,” he said.
“We fielded strongly and did not let a run through.
“Graham Fielke took a ripping catch which the umpires said was Test-match standard and that just lifted the whole side again.”
The South East also enjoyed strong representation in both Division’s 2 and 3 of the competition.
Tony Legoe, Neil Perry and Phil Vercoe all played for the state in Division 2 and managed to win one match against Tasmania.
Michael Young and Steve Bell were both part of the Division 3 side and suffered a win-less campaign.
After playing a key role in Division 1’s victory, Dohnt said he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.
“I loved it,” he said.
“I was a bit stiff and sore on Friday, but I enjoyed it.”
