You could hear the emotion in Mitch Johnstone’s voice.
The Roxburgh Park-Broadmeadows captain-coach watched as last-wicket duo Kurtley Brandt and Bryce Preston delivered the Falcons a remarkable one-wicket Subbies cricket victory over Altona – and a provisional spot in the top six. He was ecstatic when the Weekly spoke to him after the game.
“It’s the best win I’ve played in,” he said. “Obviously there was a lot riding on the game and it was pretty competitive out there.”
When the ninth wicket fell – Daniel Patrick caught off the bowling of Andrew McCammond for nine – Johnstone admitted he had little faith.
“I thought we were done and dusted. They were bowling really well, especially McCammond … they had the momentum and I thought we were probably going to fall a little bit short.”
But Brandt, stoic with 15 not out from 51 balls, and Preston, seven off 13, put on the 17 runs required for victory. “Credit where credit is due, they fought really hard,” Johnstone said.
Mitch Streiff led the way in the middle order with 58, while Syed Hussain (36 off 116) provided stability at the top of the order.
With one round to play, Roxburgh Park is sixth and takes on 11th-ranked Yarraville in a one-day game this Saturday. It needs victory to hold off Altona, Croydon and Endeavour Hills, which are all within striking distance.
Johnstone said the Falcons would need to play their best cricket to make an impact on finals.
“There’s a huge gap between our best and our worst,” he said. “But the win over Box Hill was a really good one that gave us confidence. We’ve got a big opportunity.”
Batting will be the key. In Patrick Matautaava, Streiff and Johnstone, Roxburgh Park has three of the competition’s best bowlers – between them they’ve taken 87 wickets at 13.9.
But as a whole the batting unit has lost 128 wickets this season while scoring only 1839 runs, an average of barely 14 per wicket. Only Sunshine (140) has lost more wickets, and only Endeavour Hills (1668) and Melton (1813) have scored fewer runs.
“We should be able to scrounge up a decent score but we haven’t got a lot of depth. We have to make do with what we have,” Johnstone said.
