Sensasie wiped the floor with Wall, and all in time for me to make my 14:00 chemistry tut. Though we all know the result, a wise ouman once said, “it’s about the journey, not the destination”.
Wall won the toss and chose to draw out their pain by electing to bowl first. The beginning was promising for them. Splendid bowling by Henri Staal led to Sensasie scoring only two sixes and a four in the opening over. A far cry from their 20.6 run rate in the semi-final. On the other hand, the next over seemed to signal the beginning of the end for the Wall Street ayas’ hopes. Poor Bruce Joseph must have broken a mirror and walked under four ladders that morning because luck was not on his side.
Bruce channelled Rory McIlroy’s consistency and took five wickets… all of them on no balls. I might not be that great at math, but last I checked a team consists only of 5 batsmen. While costly in terms of runs the 2nd over was also, as Katy Perry once sang, the one that got away. Jacques Pansegrouw picked up the slack in the 3rd over by getting the red hot Lehan Theron out with a tempting possible ten that went soaring into the quad walls. JP followed that up with a caught out golden duck. However, the prowess of Shaun Johnson kept the Sensasie ship powering along by punishing every no ball bowled at him. The final over was an interesting one, with a ten followed by the announcement of the passing of Prince Philip. Ruberd Gertse gave a touching rendition of Amazing Grace and play resumed with a stunning one-handed grab that sent Shaun packing. In a complete jar move, Ryan Beavon went out on a golden duck that was caught and bowled by Martin Kotze in order to end the innings.
Wall Street now had the goliath task of chasing down 123 against the flamethrowers of Sensasie. Henri went full circle and opened the batting for Wall, only this time his batting performance was not on the same level as his bowling. The snapping wrist of David Malan started the over with three dots and the jar Ryan was able to redeem himself with a solid catch resulting in Wall only scoring one six and losing a wicket. However, Daniël Rautenbach came out in the second over to breathe life back into the whimpering hopes of Wall.
Scary Hours arrived for the Sensasie seuntjies as Daniël seemed to be possessed: scoring six, six, six. After his fourth six, he scored a rare four (mainly due to poor fielding) and then got overzealous. He swung wildly at the final ball of the over in an attempt to score a ten, but he didn’t get the lift needed resulting in the ball striking the pale-yellow walls of the quad and his dismissal. As in most sport finals, it’s the unlikeliest of people who come up clutch and prove pivotal in shutting games down. Adriaan du Toit had his own devilish skill and showed Wall that they belonged on the streets by taking three wickets in one over. Chants of “Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissssssssshhhhhhhhh” filled the quad as the other jarre cheered on their quaddies final representative. Something must have been in the JC’s that lunch because Ryan, the other jar representative, put the game to bed by forcing a roof out.
The hype was not lived up to, as Wall Street crashed harder than the stock market in 2008. Despite this, Friday did bring one thing that never disappoints: the gees of the Eendrag brotherhood coming together for a lekker game of quaddies under the Jakarandas.
