Alice Henderson On Debut

Three

The big game on Saturday starts off with a meet and greet with the scouts who'll be watching the game. The coaches go on and on about the skills of the players in the A team, but don't even mention what any of us in the B team can do. Whatever. We know what we're there for so none of us really care.

Adam's team decided to bat first, only because their captain is the opening batsman and I guess he wanted to make sure he made a good impression on the scouts straight up before anyone else got a chance. Turned out to be a bad decision for him because he was out in the second over when he tried a slog to cow corner off Tommy Mackenzie's slow spin and only managed to hit it sky high. He was caught by our 'keeper for ten runs. After that though, you could really tell the difference between the A team and the B team. We don't have any good bowlers, except for Rory Smyth, and he's only bowled the one over because our captain, Troy Evans wanted to keep him fresh to bowl out the innings. Our bowlers were carted all over the ground and not many of the fielders actually had to do any fielding. Every time the ball went to the fence, or over it, someone in the crowd just tossed it back. I asked Troy to let me bowl a couple of the middle overs just to give our other bowlers a break but he wouldn't be in it. I might not be a recognised bowler but that's only because I'm not allowed to play in a proper team.

I'm sitting down at fine leg, twiddling my thumbs, just counting down the last couple of overs until we get to bat when Troy calls me in.

"What's up?" I ask.

"This is your ground," Troy says. "We're getting hammered. Any tips on where to bowl or what we should be doing?"

I can't believe he wants my advice now, with three overs to go. "What did you expect? That we'd give them a run for their money?"

Rory shines the ball on his thigh. "We're just as good as that lot," he says. Maybe he is, and maybe I am and okay, maybe Troy is too on a good day, but the rest of our team are just ring ins, added to the team because they're the ones who could make the game.

"There's three overs to go, Troy. Why worry about it now?"

"Because, I thought we'd do better than we are."

I shake my head. "You're delusional."

"Come on, Alice. Haven't you got anything?" Troy's practically begging me to help Rory not look like an idiot in the final overs.

I let out a breath. It's a bit of a long shot but if anyone could pull it off, it might be Rory. "Look, there's a spot on the pitch, just outside off and a bit fuller than you've been bowling. Bowl the next ball and make sure you follow through to look at the pitch. You'll see where I mean. Try to hit that spot."

"What's there?" Rory asks.

I don't want to give away all the secrets of my home ground to players from other teams, so all I say is, "Just trust me. It's the lightest of scuff marks and if you hit it, you never know what might happen."

Rory nods. "Righto. I'll see how I go."

"And you might want to put in a slip," I tell Troy as I turn and jog back down the other end.

It takes Rory three balls to get it right. The first two he gets too full and straight and they sail straight back past him to the fence for four. The third one though he nails right on the spot I was talking about. The batsman's expecting it to sit up nicely for him to drive, just like the first two, but it jags away and catches the edge of his bat, giving our 'keeper a nice easy catch. We all run in to celebrate the wicket and I say to Rory, "Nice job."

"Thanks for the tip," he replies as we high five.

The final two overs aren't too bad for us with Rory hitting that same spot a couple more times, and the final score of six wickets for 186 runs is pretty respectable considering what it could've been. As I look around at our team as we walk off the field for the innings break though, I'm not sure we have even half that many runs in us.