U/19s cricket final here in Abu Dhabi, both schools showed up and so there was about 1000 people in the stands at Sheikh Zayed Stadium. We were playing the Pakistani school and they had just beaten the some other school by a record of 250 runs or something (in a 25 over match), making 309 with one kid smashing 151 off 60 balls. Amazing stuff.
So we played them in the final, and we were a bit ---- scared because we knew what they were capable of. Anyway, I opened the bowling, removed the '151' kid pretty early and we got a roll on, and they were 73-5 from about 12 overs, when I came on for my second spell.
I'm an opening bowler but when the ball gets a little older I like to have the keeper up to the stumps, our keeper is the current UAE U/19 keeper so he could handle it no worries. First ball was a yorker outside off that he missed, and our keeper made a miraculous stumping while his back foot was in the air. Second ball, sprayed it down leg side, the idiot batsman lifts his back leg and gets stumped before he's realised what's happened - off a wide, got a way with one, phew.
I was on a hattrick and pretty pumped, but I had no real intention of going for the hattrick, because I've been on a hatrick so many times that I figured I'd never get one. The crowd was screaming 'hattrick' as I was running in, but even then I was thinking 'just get it full and straight' - which was my line of thinking for every ball. As it turned out, a perfect yorker, the stumps splayed everywhere - and I went nuts. Well, we all went nuts, my first hattrick and suddenly we had our metaphorical foot planted on their throats.
The crowd was chanting my name at this point and I was just trying to settle the hell down and focus on the next ball. Anyway - believe it or not - the very next ball, the exact same thing, four in four. I don't know how many people have experienced a real good run on with the ball before but basically the adrenaline rush you get is just about too much to handle. We were celebrating like we'd just won the world cup and the atmosphere was actually really electric.
Anyway we managed to clean them up and took home the trophy with ease, I got the match ball and man of the match for my 5/20. It was probably one of the better days I've ever had, and I got a LOT of attention from the opposite sex that week
. A lot of luck went into it but that was by far my favourite cricketing moment.
