Premier Cricket: Evan Gulbis completes superb finals series as Carlton takes premiership

Set 9-409, Carlton completed a remarkable run chase at the Junction Oval to win its first premiership since 1980-81, its captain Evan Gulbis the man of the match.

Evan Gulbis is exultant after hitting the winning runs for Carlton. Pic: Arj Giese, Cricket Victoria.

They swept on to the Junction Oval late on Sunday afternoon, as soon as Evan Gulbis hit the winning runs with a boundary to third man.

Carlton had completed an epic run chase, overhauling Geelong’s 9-409 to win by three wickets and claim its first District/Premier Cricket flag since 1980-81.

And now people came for Gulbis, the Blues’ outstanding captain who was unbeaten on 148.

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There was John Douglas, the Carlton president who had missed the last premiership after falling ill the week before the grand final.

There was Neville Box, the treasurer and previously the secretary.

There was club great John McConville, who years ago with the late John Scholes had helped recruit Gulbis to Carlton.

There was the legendary Test batsman Keith Stackpole, a regular Carlton watcher this season and a member of that powerful 1980-81 team.

There was coach Warren Ayres, the competition’s leading run scorer and now a premiership mentor at two clubs.

There was ….

“There were so many of them, great Carlton people, all of them just so happy and proud,’’ Gulbis said.

“Since that last premiership we’ve had 40 years of people supporting us, doing all the little things and not getting any result.

“So to see all these stalwarts of the club after the game looking so satisfied was phenomenal. We spoke about it before the game. We weren’t just playing for us, we were playing for everyone who had come through the doors at Carlton. It was an XI playing for everyone.’’

Jubilant Carlton players gather on the pitch after Evan Gulbis brings up the winning runs with a boundary.

And everyone agreed Gulbis was man of the match for his sterling innings, which occupied 202 balls and had the sprinkle of 16 fours and 1 six.

He duly took the John Scholes Medal and if there was an award for player of the finals series he would have taken that too considering he cracked 130 and jagged six wickets in the preliminary final, a performance that attracted glowing words from Stackpole.

“An amazing couple of weeks for Evan,’’ Victoria cricket operations manager Shaun Graf.

“A couple of hundreds and a six-for … two big games and he’s performed under pressure.’’

Gulbis also led the Blues to the inaugural National Twenty20 championship in Adelaide, as cool as Elvis as he delivered the last over in the final.

The 33-year-old finished the season with four centuries and 1019 runs in all formats for Carlton, something for Big Bash League clubs to ponder now that Gulbis is out of contract with the Melbourne Stars.

Carlton players spread out the premiership pennant.

But what about that run chase? It was the third-highest in a District/Premier grand final.

With centuries from Eamonn Vines and Tom Jackson, the Cats made a mountain of runs.

The Blues climbed it steadily, reaching 2-139 by stumps on day two, guided by Harry Smyth (58no) and Nick Ross (39no).

They wobbled on day three when Ross was dismissed for 50 and Smyth for 61, but Gulbis gained support from Mackenzie Harvey, Donovan Pell and Xavier Crone and with application and determination took his team home in 137.4 overs.

Gulbis said Carlton had focused on “trying to be in the now’’.

“We spoke about if we could stay in the now until the end of the (second) day, we could go home and have a sleep and reboot,’’ he said.

“The work the boys did that night was crucial. We only lost two wickets and knocked off enough runs so that we needed only 90 runs in each session on day three. At the Junction Oval on a flat wicket, that’s very achievable. It was about grinding enough. If we were going to win, we were going to win in the last hour against tired bowlers.’’

Gulbis said for all the pleasure of the victory, there was a lot of relief too, that a talented team had come through.

“We’ve built this group and given players opportunity,’’ he said.

“We’ve got depth. We’re not reliant on one player to do everything or a certain style of bowling or certain style of batting.

“We tried to make the group adaptable to all situations. You saw that when we played Dandenong. Tom Smyth faced almost 300 balls for 60. A week earlier he got 75 off 25 in a T20.

“I think we had the team to win in all situations and in all conditions, which is why relief is the right word because the competition was ours to win, I thought.’’

Gulbis’s century in the grand final was his 16th for the club and his 17th in Premier Cricket (he hit one for Prahran in his season at Toorak Park in 2016-17).

He said he was proud of his performance, “more so because what it has done for everyone else, made them happy’’.

His father, Ollie, was too nervous to watch the grand final but dropped in for celebrations. He has been a steadfast supporter of his son’s cricket, as was Gulbis’s mother, Elaine, who died two years ago.

Evan Gulbis drives down the ground during his century.

Recruited from Yarraville, Gulbis first played for Carlton in 2002-03, Princes Park and coaches Matt Drain, Darren Berry and Peter Di Venuto a sure grounding for a cricket career that has taken in worthy Shield cricket for Tasmania (he won the Ponting Medal as Tassie’s best player in 2013-14).

For the past two seasons he has been a “fly-in’’ player. He and his fiancee Kristi and nine-month-old daughter Violet live in Launceston (West Indies all-rounder Carl Hooper was the last Blue to play under such an arrangement and won the Ryder medal, but couldn’t lift the team into the finals).

Wanting her partner to have no distractions, Kristi decided to stay in Tasmania while the grand final was played.

Gulbis returned to Launceston on Tuesday afternoon, flying home with warm memories of two hearty days of celebrations.

And the Bluebagger had in his baggage two precious medals to show for an enthralling grand final.

Carlton 2018-19 premiership team: Brayden Stepien, Tom Smyth, Harry Smyth, Nick Ross, Evan Gulbis (captain), Mackenzie Harvey, Donovan Pell, Xavier Crone, Cameron Stevenson, Eddy O’Sullivan, Aaron Smillie.