PINT defeat Waratah with outrageous defensive display in Round 1

A first-grade outfit suffered a collapse for the ages, losing 7/4 in the dying overs of its Round 1 clash. Watch the video here to see how it happened.

Top End cricket is officially back and still as amazingly unpredictable as ever.

The opening round of first grade action got underway at the weekend and we might have already seen the match of the year.

In the third clash of the round between PINT and Waratah at DXC Arena, the home side pulled off a victory for the ages, producing absolute chaotic scenes in the process.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, PINT put up a meek 90 runs off 19.1 overs.

Waratah’s opening bat Rhonan Appleby looked to be batting on a completely different pitch, steering his side while his partners fell around him.

Nevertheless, despite the tragically low scoring rate, Waratah looked the goods at 3/72 with three overs to play.

Then the collapse started; Waratah imploded.

Mariyatharsha Shanthakumar captained his team to an unbelievable victory. Picture: PINT Cricket Club.

Appleby finally fell for 40 runs at the 17.3 mark.

Waratah’s Archit Bhatia was run-out by PINT’s captain Mariyatharsha Shanthakumar three balls later.

Shanthakumar ran-out another two balls later.

PINT’s vice-captain got in on the action, running out a third.

Shanthakumar then took his hat-trick of run-outs on the first ball of the last over, leaving Waratah at 8/87 with five balls remaining.

Waratah survived the next two deliveries, adding one to its total.

With two to draw the match and three deliveries to play, bowler Prince Handa came in clutch for the home side.

Handa skittled number 10 Rithun Ramanan before a mix up the next delivery saw PINT keeper Connor Poulton calmly underarm the Kookaburra into middle stump, running out Waratah’s last batter.

In the end, Waratah lost seven wickets for four runs, gifting PINT the Round 1 victory.

PINT took 7/4 in the last three overs of the match to defeat Waratah by 2 runs.

PINT president Mark Macdonald couldn’t believe what he’d witnessed.

“It was on edge all game,” he said.

“We won the unwinnable game.”

Proud of the result, Macdonald said the wicket of Appleby and his club’s mental toughness resulted in the win.

“The team spoke at the innings about backing their bowlers and making the most of any opportunities in the field,” he said.

“The changing point was when Appleby was caught and our captain bought the team together.

“We’ve now shown the competition we have the ability to defend if we keep run pressure on the batters. That was an impressive defensive display, especially when most of the side hasn’t played together before.”