Ryan Hoffman, top, was steaming in off a long run for the Melbourne Storm on Friday night, while St Albans’ Craig Brown, above, faced off against Storm bowler Luke Kelly. 75646 Pictures: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By Adem Saricaoglu
IT MAY have been a bit of hit-and-giggle fun but St Albans’ tie with Melbourne Storm in their annual Twenty20 match on Friday was exciting nonetheless.
A combined side of St Albans cricketers and footballers took on some of the Storm’s finest in front of hundreds of people on a chilly evening at Kings Park Reserve.
St Albans set the Storm a target of 144, but the Storm ran out of batsmen needing only a single to win the game, leaving the result tied.
Storm youngster Shea Moylan was named man of the match after taking a stunning five-wicket haul that included a hat-trick.
After the match he admitted he wasn’t quite sure how he managed to get such figures.
“I was mixing it up actually. There was a bit of medium pace and a bit of faster pace, and I was darting them in there every now and then, trying to keep them guessing,” Moylan said.
“To be honest I don’t know how I did it. I think I got called in a bit late, so I don’t think they had their best batsman out there, but it was a lot of fun.”
St Albans batted first and quickly took the Storm’s bowling attack to the sword, with 20 runs scored off the first two overs.
However the Storm were able to break through for their first wicket in the third over and from there managed to stem the flow.
During the run chase Gareth Widdop was impressive with the bat for the Storm, notching up 23 runs to put Melbourne in a good position to win, despite losing wickets through their middle order.
Widdop’s innings was cut short however after he was caught brilliantly trying to hit a boundary.
The Storm needed six off the final two overs but could only make five more runs before losing their final wicket.
St Albans’ sports manager Des Barnard said the game was a big success for everyone involved.
“For the local community and all the kids here, they all get their chance to have their photo taken with the boys and get their autographs when they may not normally get that chance,” Barnard said.
The club recently spent $30,000 on a new electronic scoreboard, which was used in its full capacity on Friday.
“We’ve got the scoreboard up and running and we wanted to show that off to some of the sponsors,” Barnard said.
Storm back-rower Ryan Hinchcliffe was involved in bringing the team together, and said his side played well despite a “shaky start” with the ball.
“We all love our cricket and we don’t get a chance to play all that often so we probably think we’re a little better than we are (at cricket),” Hinchcliffe said.
“We really like coming out here, and seeing all the fans that are here is fantastic. The boys really appreciate it.”
