A BIG HIT: Mick Sullivan.
MOVE over Chris Gayle. Warner who?
Gladstone opener Mick Sullivan hit 142 not out in his side’s 78-run Twenty20 victory over Metro Force last Saturday.
Played at the batsman-friendly Moulder Park in what can only be described as scorching heat, Sullivan lit up the tiny ground smashing 17 fours and belting eight sixes to rack up 116 runs purely from boundaries.
Spare a thought for the Metro bowlers.
No-one was spared with Scott Kennedy the best of the bowlers taking 1-20 off three, while Jack Radnedge’s sole over went for 22.
“I got going late,” Sullivan said looking back at the dig which helped Gladstone to 5-252, the highest total of the Orange District Cricket Association’s 2012-13 lower grade Twenty20 competition.
“It helps when you bat through the innings especially with it being only a little ground with a fast outfield out there near the skate park.”
To give a better indication on how late Sullivan and Gladstone got going, the right hander’s ton helped the team scored 87 runs in the final five overs.
Sullivan and Gary Cole put on 119 for the sixth wicket, of which Cole scored 25.
It sounds simple, but Sullivan said finding the boundary was easy once he got his eye in.
Getting going, though, is the tough part.
In two innings out of the four Twenty20 games he played with Gladstone on the weekend, Sullivan got out for a duck and four against Orange City seconds and Waratahs respectively.
In the two other digs, he hit 58 and, obviously, in the other came the big hundred.
“I was just lucky to get through the first couple of overs,” he said.
“If I did that I tended to go on and get a score.
“I got 135 not out in a two day game this season but we declared then and that was my highest until the weekend.”
It seems Sullivan’s sporting prowess isn’t just restricted to the rugby league field.
And it was another league player that got Sullivan back into cricket for the first time since his junior days.
“Benny McAlpine got me back into it out at Molong a couple of years ago, I then came in and had a hit with Gladdy and I’ve been playing every week this year. It helps when you play regularly too,” he said.