da betobet： It was the dismissal of Victorian batsman Brad Hodge which had acted as the turning point of the first day’s play of the Pura Cup Final against Queensland here at the’Gabba ground in Brisbane yesterday
John Polack24-Mar-2001It was the dismissal of Victorian batsman Brad Hodge which had acted as the turning point of the first day’s play of the Pura Cup Final against Queensland here at the’Gabba ground in Brisbane yesterday. So there could barely have been a better way of redressing the balance than for Hodge’s part-time off spin to stimulate anotherdramatic reversal late on day two.Hodge (3/19) linked forces with paceman Michael Lewis (5/57) to restore hope where very little had seemingly existed for the Bushrangers, inspiring a remarkableslide from the home team which saw it surrender seven wickets in less than two hours after tea.In the process, the visitors restricted the Bulls to a disappointing first innings tally of 242 and a lead of only sixty-six runs. It was an advantage which had threatened toswell to far more serious proportions after vigilant nightwatchman Ashley Noffke (43) had batted through the entirety of the first two sessions and helped ClintonPerren (56) and Martin Love (24) to steer the locals into a very sound position.For four hours, the Victorian attack had seemed largely innocuous. Conjecture clearly overrode conviction at different moments as captain Paul Reiffel sought in vainto stumble upon the right combinations in the utilisation of his bowlers and the arrangement of his field settings. At times, the ease with which his attack was beingresisted was so obvious that it even seemed that a run out was rapidly becoming the most likely means by which the Bushrangers might break through; one crucial suchopportunity slipping them by as point fieldsman Jonathan Moss aimed wide of Perren’s stumps when the pugnacious right hander had just eleven runs alongside hisname.Prior to a fateful final session, nothing looked more certain than that Queensland was on its way to establishing a mountainous first innings lead. As they delighted in anuncomplicated vigil from Noffke which ate up as many as 204 deliveries and 254 minutes, the good-natured mood of a crowd of 4071 certainly underlined this.Scarcely before there was time to digest tea, though, Hodge then showed the folly of such an assumption by changing the entire complexion of the match with theopening two balls after the break. The first – tossed well up – induced a loose drive from Noffke and sent the ball arrowing to a grateful Matthew Elliott at slip. Thesecond was a delightful delivery, again well flighted but this time pitching on the line of off stump, beating a defensive push and dethroning Queensland captain StuartLaw (0) straight in front of his castle.Two wickets had fallen in four hours and now the next two had been surrendered in the space of three minutes. Brendan Nash (10) calmly denied the possibility of aHodge hat-trick by driving back along the pitch but the tone for a late afternoon revival had been set. The part-time off spinner later returned to remove tailenderAdam Dale (4) as he set about capitalising on a day of dutiful, wholehearted labour from Lewis – the one bowler who had been able to maintain a semblance ofhostility throughout the innings.For a short time in the final session, Lewis threatened to undo much of his good work by suddenly deciding to bowl too short and offering a counter-attacking AndyBichel (28) the chance to smite three boundaries from consecutive balls. But he quickly regained his composure and re-aligned accuracy with velocity to claimcareer-best figures.Much like Noffke yesterday, the right armer from Northcote didn’t find perfect line and length in his opening overs from the Stanley Street End, whistling severaldeliveries well wide of the stumps. But the wicket of Jimmy Maher (25) came from one such ball – as the left hander played a cross-batted shot at a delivery down legside that he might have been better advised to leave alone altogether – and any sense of nervousness seemed to ease quickly after that.”Obviously, we only had 176 on the board and we knew they were going to try and bat us into the ground today. We had to stick to our guns, stick to the way thatwe’ve bowled all year, and that’s the way we did it in the end,” enthused Lewis.”It was pretty warm out there and I was pretty tired by the end. Struggling to even lift my legs.””But if you bowl the right lines and lengths, eventually you’re going to get the rewards. That’s what we just tried to concentrate on (doing) today and a few thingsultimately fell our way.”There was a remarkable symmetry to events of yesterday and today: only one batsman registered a half-century and only one other headed into the forties before twobowlers combined to share eight wickets between them. The only real difference was that there was greater sting in the Queensland tail, experienced campaignersBichel and Wade Seccombe (33*) combining well to add an invaluable fifty runs for the eighth wicket.Now comes Victoria’s turn to finally uncover the method of producing the large total that a generally benign pitch would seem to demand. Openers Jason Arnberger(2) and Elliott (0) have already negotiated the first over; the Bushrangers will be hoping that they survive many more unscathed tomorrow on what might well prove tobe the deciding day of this always-engrossing season.