As he strode to the crease, Alexander said he was ‘not thinking anything special’.
“I just went out there and hit them alright I suppose. I don’t usually bat for that long,” he said.
“I never really thought I was in for a big innings. Once we had a good platform I thought I might just put the foot down a little bit and see what happens.
“I wasn’t really thinking about making a big score or anything like that, I was just trying to go hard, and if I got out at least we had a good platform for the others to build on.”
Alexander helped establish that platform quickly, batting first alongside Mitchell Dahlenburg, 11 runs, and then Brodie Cramer, 20.
The Warriors raced past the 100-run mark inside 17 overs before Cramer’s dismissal at the hands of Aiden Keys brought Brad Alexander belatedly to the crease.
When Nathan notched his own triple-digit milestone – his hundred coming in the 25th over from 65 deliveries faced – he began to swing freely.
The 32nd over was one for Nathan to remember and one for Saint bowler Nick Germano to forget, yielding three sixes from the first three deliveries before a four, a two and another four to finish.
“That was pretty well around the time I started to put the foot down. A few overs before that I was batting well and I was over 100, so after I made my century I thought I’d start going for it and see what happened,” Alexander said.
“I started going pretty hard at every ball from that stage.”
While Alexander’s all-out attacking mentality resulted in chances for the Saint fielders, the visitors were unable to hold their catches and the runs continued to mount.
Brad Alexander got in on the act, scoring an unbeaten 107 of his own from 75 deliveries to send the Warriors’ score racing towards 400.
On the final ball of the 40-over innings Nathan’s luck finally ran out, with the star batsman bowled by Hugh Nixon to leave the Warriors at 3-395.
But the dismissal failed to dampen Alexander’s spirits after a memorable knock.
“It wasn’t too bad. I was still trying to hit it as far as I possibly could on the last ball. It’s the first time I’ve ever faced the first ball of an innings and faced the last ball as well,” he said.
Set a near-impossible target, the Saints batted gamely but finished well short, with Warrior Josh Lees’ fourth wicket on the final ball of the innings sealing a mammoth 244-run win.
Horsham Cricket Association statistician Brenton Hallam, who is compiling an online database of every available scorebook throughout the competition’s history, said Alexander’s innings of 230 was the largest on record for a one-day A Grade game.
“As far as I know, it might even be the first ever double century in one-day A Grade cricket, because the rest of the double centuries I’ve got on the database are from two-day cricket,” he said.
“The top A Grade one-day score I have in the database is Dale Cole, who made 154 not out in 1988.
“I haven’t got the whole association though, I’ve only got Pimpinio, Jung, Horsham, Homers and Horsham City.”
The highest A Grade score in Hallam’s records, regardless of format, remains Don Rush’s 248 for Jung against Horsham in a two-day game in 1966.
Alexander said the thought of entering the association’s history books never entered his mind, and that he was content simply to enjoy himself.
“You don’t think about those sorts of things when you’re just out there having fun,” he said.
“A lot of the St Mary’s players came up and shook my hand when I made 200, and they all shook my hand after the innings break and following the game as well,” he said.
“It was a really fun day. We had really good banter with them and they were a great bunch of blokes.
“It was our first time playing against them and they were all good sports, so it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.”
Next up for the Warriors is a heavy-weight showdown against ladder leader Laharum, which flattened the Horsham Tigers by nine wickets on Saturday.
With every Demon bowler claiming at least one wicket, the Tigers were all out for 61, setting up an easy run chase for Daniel Griffiths, 40 not out, and Monty Wynne, 23 not out.
Elsewhere, Lubeck-Murtoa defeated the visiting Brim-Kellalac-Sheep Hills by 23 runs in a low-scoring affair, with Shannon Reddie and Oliver Lindsay taking four wickets each as neither side surpassed 100 runs.
Swifts-Great Western bowler Zach Marrow also had a day out with four wickets as his side posted a five-wicket win over Donald-Jeffcott.
Noradjuha-Toolondo survived a superb knock of 80 from Colts opener Dylan Arnott to win by 37 runs, with Tony Caccaviello taking four wickets.
In addition to the showdown between the Warriors and Demons at Laharum, this weekend’s games will see the Saints host Lubeck-Murtoa, the Bullants travelling to Stawell to play Swifts-Great Western, Brim-Kellalac-Sheep Hills at home to Donald-Jeffcott and the Colts taking on the Tigers at Horsham City Oval.
• Saturday's weather is tipped to top 42C so play might be cancelled by the association under heat policy rules.
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