by David Warner
Anything’s possible, Davey reminded himself. Anything. He looked across to his teammates. Ivy was getting ready to bat. Sitting beside her on the sand were a few Sandhill Flats Nippers, and beside them he recognised Rustum, the lifeguard. Suddenly he realised they were cheering. They were cheering him.
‘Go, Davey! You can do it!’ Bella called out.
Rustum gave him a wave. ‘Keep up the good work!’
Davey looked down at his bat. ‘Come on, Kaboom. Let’s show ’em how it’s done.’
Davey and Ivy quickly formed an impressive partnership to add another 10 runs to the tally. Ivy gave most of the strike to Davey, who took advantage of some wayward bowling and lethargic fielding. Now they needed just 16 to win.
Davey was on 41. Could he make a half-century? Fifty here I come, he said to himself, as he waited for Josh to choose his next bowler. The Shimmer Bay captain called someone over.
It was Mikey. He was back.
Davey’s doppelganger waved from the bowler’s end.
The Sandhill Flats opener returned the wave. ‘Goodbye, doppelganger,’ he whispered as he took his stance at the crease.
But for the next few overs, the runs dried up. Davey seemed to have suddenly lost confidence. It was as if, with victory almost within his grasp, he’d fallen apart.
Recognising that Davey was struggling, Ivy did her best to retain the strike to give him a break. But she misjudged a quick one down the leg side from Josh and hooked it straight to Caspar at mid-wicket. She was out.
Ivy had got Sandhill Flats to within seven runs of victory. Davey, who had struggled to 43, also needed seven to reach his fifty.
Kevin strode onto the field. ‘Make this a double-whammy, doppelganger,’ Kevin hissed to Davey as he passed.
‘Who’s the doppelganger?’ Davey hissed back.
Kevin grinned and gave him the thumbs up.
Davey was back at the striker’s end. At the other end of the pitch, Mikey was waiting at his bowler’s mark.
Suddenly a feeling of calm descended on Davey. He knew he could do this. Mikey’s bowling was no mystery. He knew his style and he knew his tricks. It was just a matter of picking the balls and finding the gaps . . .
Mikey ran in. But he overpitched the ball, so Davey stepped out to meet it. Kaboom connected and together they sent the ball flying over the Sandhill Flats Nippers’ tent. It was a four.
A shout went up from the sidelines. ‘Hurray!’
Davey looked over. Bella was cheerleading some of the other Sandhill Flats Nippers in a dance. Rustum was on his feet, a big smile on his face.
Then Davey saw it – or, to be precise, him. Mudge. He was standing off to one side, still fully dressed in his black shoes and shirt and tie, with his arms crossed. He didn’t look happy.
The next one’s for you, Mr Mudge, Davey thought as he waited, ready, at the crease. And it was at that moment he recalled Mudge’s words on Friday afternoon. ‘Tests are important.’
Well, they sure were and Davey was going to make certain he didn’t waste any more time on this one.
He didn’t take his eyes off Mikey as he ran in to bowl. He saw Mikey’s wrist twist as he let the ball fly wide of Davey’s off stump. In one movement, the Sandhill Flats opener switched feet and hands and moved forward to meet the ball. Again Kaboom connected cleanly as Davey hooked the ball high towards the rocks.
Four!
‘Four!’ Everyone shouted at once.
‘We won!’ Kevin ran down the pitch towards Davey. ‘And you got your 50! Go Warner!’
‘Fifty-one, actually,’ Davey said, a huge grin on his face.
The batters pounded each other on the back. Then they glanced around. Sunil and the rest of the Sandhill Flats team were running onto the pitch. Close behind them were Bella and her Nipper friends. Even Rustum was walking over, a big grin on his face.
Davey looked for Mr Mudge, but he was no longer in his spot. Then he spotted the teacher trudging up the sand towards the car park.
The Shimmer Bay team were wandering around shaking hands with the Sandhill Flats crew. Davey looked around for Mikey, but his doppelganger seemed to have vanished. But where? And why?
At that moment, Davey couldn’t have cared less. After all, they’d won the Test match fair and square.
CHAPTER 12
DOUBLE TROUBLE
‘I knew it!’ Davey said, though he’d taken such a big lick of ice cream it was hard to understand him. ‘I saw Mikey after he hid them, and he had a guilty grin on his face.’
It was late on Sunday afternoon at Sandhill Flats beach and the Nippers had all but packed up and gone. The Shimmer Bay cricketers had also headed home, so the Sandhill Flats kids had the beach virtually to themselves.
After their Test match victory, they’d rewarded themselves with a swim. Now they were gathered around, licking ice creams and staring at a photo on Ivy’s phone. It was a picture she’d taken the day before, of Tay, Lydia and Georgia with the purple hair singing a song by their favourite band 15 Minutes. But when you zoomed in, there was Mikey in the background, running up the beach with the bag of trophies.
‘We were killing time while Davey and Sunil went with Mudge to the lifeguard’s tent.’
‘Mikey cheated!’ George was genuinely shocked.
So was Kevin. ‘I can’t believe it!’
‘I can,’ Davey said. ‘And that proves it.’ He shook his head.
‘How did he carry them all that way?’ Tay wondered aloud.
‘They weren’t very heavy,’ Davey said between licks. ‘They had a bit of metal on them somewhere, I guess, but they were mainly plastic.’
‘So why’d he do it?’ George asked.
‘To cause us a bit of trouble and get Warner out of the picture, I suppose,’ Sunil said. ‘And it worked – at least, for a while.’
He put his arm around Davey’s shoulder. ‘But Warner topped him – with some great bowling and some excellent batting – for once!’ He gave his friend a friendly push.
‘Ha! Spin always wins!’ Davey said to wind up Sunil.
‘Spin’s for nins,’ Sunil said. ‘Pace is for aces.’
‘NOT!’ Davey shouted, accidentally spitting ice cream all over Sunil’s toes.
‘Ugh!’ Sunil did a little dance to kick off the cold wet blob on his foot.
A dog barked. Max – Davey knew that bark anywhere.
He looked up. The pest of a pooch was barrelling towards them.
‘Here we go again,’ Davey said. ‘Now I’ll be in big trouble.’
But Rustum and the rest of the lifeguards had gone home too. For once, Max and Davey were safe.
When the dog reached his master, he leapt up and licked his face.
‘Get off!’ Davey shouted. ‘Down!’
Max ran off after a seagull. That dog really did love the beach.
‘Well, we better pack it all up,’ Sunil said.
Everyone began collecting their things and stuffing it all into bags.
Davey picked up the two spades Benny had sold them on hire-purchase. ‘What do we do with these?’ he said, waving them in the air. ‘I don’t suppose they’re any use to you, McNab, now we know there never was any treasure.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong!’ Kevin had a gleam in his eye. ‘In fact, there is treasure!’ he said.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at him.
Sunil rolled his eyes. ‘Okay, well you better hang on to those spades, then. I was going to return them to Benny and try and get some money back on the deal, but if you think you’ll need them . . .’
Kevin shook his head. ‘Nah, they’re no use to me. Won’t be able to use them to get the treasure.’
Davey laughed. ‘What are you going to use, then? A bulldozer?’
Kevin shook his head. ‘That won’t be any good, either,’ he said. He dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out a scrunched up ball of paper.
‘See, I had another look at this map, and I think I’ve
worked it out.’
‘Oh-oh, here we go,’ George said.
‘Yeah, check this out.’ Kevin waved them all over.
Everyone stood around and watched as he flattened out the map so they could see it.
‘Here,’ he said, pointing at the big X on the map. ‘That’s the treasure, right?’
Everyone agreed.
‘Well, I thought that was in the sandhills. But how wrong was I? Completely, was how!’
He looked around at his teammates. ‘You see, that’s not the sandhills, no way.’
‘So what is it?’ Davey asked.
Kevin grinned like a crazed crab. ‘It’s the ocean, see? The treasure’s in the sea, not the sand!’ He laughed, as if it was the most sensible and obvious thing in the world.
‘So instead of spades, we’re gonna need snorkels!’ He turned to Davey and Sunil, his face serious. ‘Has Benny got any of those, do you think?’
‘Course he has,’ Davey said. ‘For a price.’
‘Good. So next weekend, we’re back here looking for treasure, right?’
‘Wrong. I’ve got cricket next weekend,’ Davey said.
‘Yeah, me too,’ Sunil piped up.
‘And me,’ everyone echoed.
‘And cricket has to take priority over treasure hunting,’ Davey reminded Kevin.
‘And most other things too,’ Sunil added for good measure.
‘Most things?’ Davey shook his head. ‘Cricket takes priority over everything.’
Then he remembered something. He’d promised his mum he’d remember to reapply sunscreen today.
‘Actually, let me rephrase that,’ he said, bending down to rummage through his bag. He pulled out a bottle of sunscreen. ‘Cricket takes priority over everything – except reapplying!’
‘Of course,’ George said.
‘So true.’ Kevin nodded in mock seriousness.
‘Am I right, Deep?’ Davey asked.
Sunil raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at his best friend. ‘I thought you liked catching UFOs best.’
‘Catching UFOs?’
‘Isn’t that why you’ve got one on your head?’
‘That’s a frisbee, Deep,’ Davey said, pulling Granddad’s old hat off his head and spinning it at his friend. ‘See?’
DAVID WARNER’S AMAZING STATS
DAVID ANDREW WARNER
BORN OCTOBER 1986
BATS: LEFT HANDED
BOWLS: RIGHT ARM LEG BREAK
Test (2011–)*
ODI (2009–)*
T20 (2009–)*
Matches:
51
74
61
Total runs:
4506
2702
1633
Highest score:
253
178
90
Batting average:
50.07
39.16
28.16
Scoring rate:
76.92
92.16
139.81
Centuries:
6
6
–
Sixes:
43
46
74
*CURRENT AT AUGUST 2016
YOUR AMAZING CRICKET STATS
NAME:
BORN:
BATS:
BOWLS:
HIGHEST SCORE:
MOST SIXES:
MOST CATCHES IN ONE MATCH:
MOST EMBARRASSING MOMENT:
TOUGHEST OPPOSITION:
FAVOURITE AUSTRALIAN PLAYER:
FAVOURITE INTERNATIONAL PLAYER:
ULTIMATE DREAM TEAM:
OTHER BOOKS IN THE KABOOM KID SERIES
THE BIG SWITCH
PLAYING UP
KEEP IT DOWN!
HIT FOR SIX
THE BIG TIME
HOME & AWAY
CAPTAINS’ KNOCK
THE KABOOM KID – TEST MATCH
First published in Australia in 2016 by
Simon & Schuster (Australia) Pty Limited
Suite 19A, Level 1, 450 Miller Street, Cammeray, NSW 2062
www.SimonandSchuster.com
A CBS Company
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Visit our website at www.simonandschuster.com.au
© David Warner and J.V. McGee 2016
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry
Creator: Warner, David Andrew, author.
Title: Test Match / David Warner, with J.V. McGee; illustrated by Jules Faber.
ISBN: 9781925368185 (paperback)
9781925368192 (ebook)
Series: Warner, David Andrew. Kaboom Kid; 7.
Target Audience: For primary school age.
Subjects: Cricket – Juvenile fiction.
Cricket players – Juvenile fiction.
Cricket matches – Juvenile fiction.
Other Creators/Contributors: McGee, J.V., author; Faber, Jules, 1971 – illustrator.
Dewey Number: A823.4
Cover and internal design by Hannah Janzen
Cover and internal illustrations by Jules Faber
Typeset by Midland Typesetters, Australia
