When veteran Kookaburras captain Shane Riordan won the toss for the start of the two-day clash against Mornington at Kitchener Park last Saturday, he did something he can’t recall doing before.
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After inspecting the pitch and deeming it “dead as dead”, Riordan put fellow winless side Mornington into bat – a move that no doubt caused opposition eyebrows to rise as though it had started snowing at Kitchener Park.
And the reason for this unprecedented, bizarre move, which “99 times out of 100” he would not do?
“[Veteran Kookaburras batsman] Cameron Milne works in the mines and he said, ‘We won’t be playing next week – it’ll be wet,’” Riordan said.
“‘If we’re to beat them we’ve got to get them to bat first. We have to beat them in one day because we won’t be playing a second day.’
“I thought, Okay, I can’t lose. If it doesn’t pan out I can blame him [Milne]. So it was a strategic decision not to bat.”
The out-the-box plan did not work according to plan. Mornington – whose previous totals this year were 66, 27, 24, 36 and 5-29 – were bowled out for 159.
In reply, Kookaburras were 2-72 at stumps on day one.
Unsurprisingly, given his bold, influential long-range weather forecast, opener Milne batted almost Gilchristesque – finishing the day 56 not out.
Milne, a former cricketer of the year, played so well that Mornington captain Pat Maher commented: “I don’t think I’ve seen Cameron bat better. Plenty of shots were coming off the middle.”
Riordan believes that ominous weather prediction will be correct. “We’re in a good position … but with the weather, it’s probably not going to happen,” he said.
However if the weather is kind, he added: “We’ve got ourselves into a position where we should win if we play properly.”
To do that, he said Kookaburras’ inexperienced batsmen had to wait for the right ball to hit and “not get too excited and want to play shots early”.