Dan the main man for roaring Wildcatz
DAN Gartrell saved his best performance with the bat for when it mattered most with a defiant half-century setting up Wildcatz Indoor Sports for ultimate glory in the Mendi Tropical Big Bash.
He smashed boundaries at will as he set up a 24-run upset against competition front runners EV2 Lions in the final.
Gartrell came to the crease with his side in trouble at 3-16 after a sizzling opening spell from Lions young left-arm quick Jarrod Edmondson.
But he soon corrected course as he belted 53 from 33 balls before falling with his side at 7-100.
The Wildcatz would eventually post 9-121 from their 20 overs which proved a bridge too far for the Lions after Herbie Heuir (4-21) and skipper Andrew Boyle (4-19) ran riot with the ball.
Despite Cooper Guest (22) and Craig Mcelligott (23) setting up a strong platform for the Lions run chase, the wickets fell at regular intervals with both Mark Taviani and Trent Walsh gone for golden ducks.
It took a big effort from the Wildcatz who had to earn their way into the grand final the hard way with wins in the final two regular round games on Saturday and Sunday.
“It is a great experience and a great feeling too,” Boyle
said. “We came in (on Sunday) needing a few results to go our way, and to put on a good performance in the morning.
“The team played really well to set us up for (the grand final), then we were able to back it up with a really great performance.
“Our plan for the whole competition was to back each other and remain positive. We came playing positive cricket. We basically had it up to ourselves, we had to make the runs, we had to bowl well and field well.”
Boyle, who finished the competition’s leading wicket taker with 12, said the performance of Gartrell could not be understated.
“It was a great innings, he is such a key player and a high impact player and set it up really well for us,” Boyle said.
“It is always nice to contribute (with the ball), but again it was a great team performance. We were able to build the pressure through the innings.”
Lions batsman Craig Mcelligott was judged player of the tournament after he finished with 224 runs from his seven innings.
Lions skipper Chris Stanger was left to lament what might have for his side after he felt they let the trophy slip through their grasp.
“It definitely hurts, we thought we were the form team,” Stanger said.
“We went into the final on top of the ladder and playing some good confident cricket but we couldn’t get over the line in the end there. Wildcatz bowled really well to us, in the middle overs we just lost a lot of wickets.
“That is the thing with the Wildcatz team, they have a bunch of match winners in their team and Dan Gartrell turned it on for the finals. He took the game away from us a little bit. We still backed ourselves to chase down the target, but we couldn’t get there.”
Both captains were resounding in their approval of the Big Bash concept with the inaugural tournament lighting up Endeavour Park over the past month.