By David Nagel
Forget the nervous nineties…it was the initial first step towards his remarkable double century that provided Kooweerup’s Mitch Davey with his most anxious moment of the day at Denhams Road on Saturday.
Walking to the crease in the third over against Cardinia in A Grade, the number three headed to the middle for the first time since tearing his hamstring on the opening day of the season more than a month ago.
Just moments later, he experienced that same sick feeling again, twinging that same hammy as he took off for the first of his 207 runs against the Bulls.
No stranger to injuries throughout his career, there would have been little complaint from onlookers if the 23-year-old simply threw the toys out of the cot.
Stress fractures of the back and multiple soft-tissue injuries have thwarted Davey’s career; that had reached the heights of being selected for Vic Country in the Australian Under-19 Carnival and being rookie listed by the Melbourne Renegades.
But instead of complaining he knuckled down; turning his first foray into triple figures into a day he will never forget.
“I did my hammy on my first run for the day so there weren’t too many quick singles out there,” was Davey’s assessment of how the day played out.
“It definitely helped with the quick outfield; it was a lot easier to hit boundaries than usual.
“I was coming back from a grade-two tear, and it doesn’t feel as bad as that, so hopefully I’ll end up okay and won’t miss too much cricket.”
The talented left-hander, who was measured at 198-centimetres during his State junior pathway career, shared the stage with a couple of Kooweerup legends on Saturday that helped guide him to his massive score.
The first of those partnerships, a 129-run journey, was shared with his dad Matt, who made 65 runs of his own.
“I was hoping to bring up my hundred when he was out there, that would have been great to celebrate it with him, but he copped a stiff caught behind,” Mitch said.
“It was good batting with him again; we haven’t done it for a while after he dropped down to the lower grades.
“Every time I played a bad shot he snapped me back into it, which was good, it was nice to have him out there by my side.
“It was funny batting with the old man, because he didn’t care if we didn’t run off my batting, but when he hit it he was pretty keen to run.
“I told him it’s only three or four steps for me to get down the other end; so it’s not too bad.”
The second of those legends, Chris O’Hara, made 69 not out and was out in the middle when Davey reached his 200-run milestone.
Although it wasn’t always smooth sailing.
“It got to a stage where I was on 180-odd, batting with Tubsy (O’Hara), and it seemed like he was getting a single of the fifth or last ball of every over,” Davey said with a chuckle.
“He kept saying sorry to me, but I was okay; I wasn’t really thinking about making 200 at stage anyway.
“It was great to have him out there and guiding me through to the end.”
Davey initially earned his reputation as a punishing left-arm quick, who could intimidate opposition batters with his unique angle and steep bounce.
But those aforementioned injuries have forced him to concentrate on new strengths.
“If I’m not bowling I want to be batting as much as I can, trying to improve, and at the start of this season I started bowling and it didn’t feel too good,” he said.
“I had a chat to Wombat (Coach Chris Bright) about it; told him I wasn’t going to bowl, and he was very supportive of that decision.
“The last couple of weeks, coming back from injury, I’ve been getting down to the nets with dad throwing a few extras at me.
“It’s good to get down there away from training and get some feedback from him, instead of going in at training for five minutes and coming out again.
“The last couple of weeks has just been working on technique; getting good pointers from dad and areas to improve on.
“It’s good to work on something and see the rewards come like they did on the weekend.”
The soon-to-be 24-year-old said he had learned a lot from spending so much time at the crease.
“The last few years I haven’t really made many runs; just got a few starts and never really gone on with it, but it was all about ticking off the milestones,” he said.
“I got to 40 and thought, I might get a fifty here, and then I was on about 80 at tea and got a few messages saying ‘you’re going to make a hundred here’.
“It made me think about it a bit; and I just tried to keep my head down and bat properly.
“I got to a hundred and thought I might go the swing, but then talked myself out of it and kept going.
“Having the old man and Tubsy out there was great; the runs were flowing batting normally so there was no need to change anything really.
“If you wait for the loose ball and put those away, you can build an innings pretty quickly.
“Hopefully I can be more consistent from this point forward, because now I know how to do it.”
