Steve McKay has been a serviceable bowler for Footscray United over the past three summers – nothing more, nothing less.
The off-spinner comes into the attack when the seamers are tiring and churns out valuable overs for captain Shahan Fernando.
McKay has a knack of getting a sneaky wicket here and there, but nothing to suggest he was going to take Saturday’s play by the scruff of the neck with a stunning 5-38 off 21.1 overs.
Newport-Digman was shellshocked after McKay left a trail of destruction to reduce it to 191 on day one of the Turf cricket west A1 clash at Bryan Martyn Oval.
“It was a pretty slow, dead wicket,” United batsman Stuart Ainge told Star Weekly.
“The quicks really struggled to get anything out of it so we took a lot of pace off the ball after that and bowled a bit more disciplined and tried to choke them.”
Not only was McKay superb with his plentiful breakthroughs, he put immense pressure on the batsmen with tight bowling to keep the runs in check.
It was an out-of-the-box performance from McKay, who’s best known for his work with the bat.
He has made 249 runs at 31 this summer, but had taken only five wickets before Saturday, doubling his output in one fell swoop.
Bowling has not always been on McKay’s CV. He was a wicketkeeper for United before giving that up because of the soreness he experienced when arriving at his 9-5 job on Monday mornings.
“He came through as one of our most promising batsmen and a wicketkeeper,” Ainge recalled.
“He got jack of keeping because he said he had a sore back and sore knees and he’s a labourer by trade, so it was hard for him to go to work on a Monday or Tuesday with his back really sore.
“One year when we had a pretty poor attack, he would run in and try and bowl quick, so we gave him the new ball but that didn’t last long. Now he bowls off spin.
“He’s done everything – he’s been a spinner, a quick, a keeper and a batsman – and he’d only be 28 or 29.
“He doesn’t spin it a lot, he’s more a defensive bowler usually, but on this sort of deck, which was slow and low, he got a couple of lbws and bowled.”
Pacemen Yadi Ushan (3-55) and Geeth Silva (2-46) worked hard to get their wickets on a deck that didn’t favour pacemen.
United openers Ainge (6) and Raphael Kardachi (0) survived the final nine overs of the day to be 0-8 at stumps.
Ainge expects the chase for 192 to be a tricky one – but one United must complete to be serious about contending this summer.
“We’ve got to bat well, of course, and if we do we’ll get there,” he said.
“We’ll be disappointed if we don’t.
“We’ve got to win this one. If we lose we could drop out of the four.”
