Eastern Cricket Association: Six off the last ball lifts Bulleen into Wright Shield grand final

A guy hobbles off the bench on one leg and, facing the last ball of the day, hits a six to secure a fighting win and a place in the grand final. Stirring stuff from the pages of a Boy’s Own adventure or the Eastern Cricket Association?

A guy hobbles off the bench on one leg and, facing the last ball of the day, hits a six to secure a fighting win and a place in the grand final.

Stirring stuff for the pages of a Boy’s Own adventure, but hardly grounded in the reality of a cut throat Eastern Cricket Association Wright Shield semi-final.

Dan Watt and the Bulleen Cricket Club, however, beg to differ after scoring perhaps the most remarkable win in the club’s history.

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It was an epic tale of courage ripped straight from the pages of a Boy’s Own adventure

Needing a six off the last ball at Eric Raven Reserve on Sunday to score a reverse outright against Glen Iris and book a grand final appointment with Marcellin Old Collegians, Watt dragged his bat and a calf injury to the crease and blasted a shot he’s unlikely to repeat in the rest of his career.

Bulleen skipper Matt Andrews said, like all good movies, the final ball had almost played out in slow motion.

“Dan Watt, the guy who won it for us, had almost won it for us in the first innings (11 not out as Bulleen closed on the Glen Iris target),” he said. “But he injured his calf and wasn’t able to field, so he could only come in after the fifth wicket and there was a run out on the second last ball. So he came to the crease needing a six off the last ball. ​

“It was a full ball and he just picked it up and hit it over point.

“I can still see it, he just threw his bat in the air and everyone ran onto the pitch. It was just pandemonium.”​

Sadly, Watt’s injury means he will miss this weekend’s grand final.

After running through Glen Iris for just 110 and then reaching stumps on Saturday at 5-83, Bulleen looked to have one foot in the grand final.

But a late innings slump early on Sunday consigned Bulleen to 105 all-out and a five-run loss on the first innings.

“It was still in the balance, but we were quietly confident,” Andrews said of the position at stumps on day one. “But things changed pretty quickly in that first half-hour.

“But only 11 overs had gone, there were 69 overs left to play. We’d bowled them out in 42 overs in the first innings, we just had to stick at it.”​

A Bulleen celebration. Picture: Stuart Milligan

The Bulleen attack rose to the occasion and dismissed Glen Iris for 121 off 52 overs in its second dig to bring the possibility of a reverse outright into play.

“We had to get 135 off 17 overs and on a small ground, that was very gettable,” Andrews said.

“We had to score at eight an over and it never got to more than 10 or 11 an over. We had 14 to get off the last.”​

Andrews said, despite the disappointment of crashing to a first innings loss, he never really felt his team was out of it.

“I talked to the guys and said ‘we have to keep fighting, anything can happen’,” he said. “We’ve just got to stick at it and have a crack’.”​

Bulleen will now tackle Marcellin Old Collegians in the grand final at Koonung Park this Saturday and Sunday.