After two consecutive rain effected draws, the weather gods
finally shone down on us cricketers as we took on Belgrave at home. Winning the
toss, I had plenty of hesitation in batting as the grass looked like it hadn’t
been mowed in a month, but did so anyway and backed the guys in to post a big
total.
The day again was a see sawing battle for our batsman as
every time we looked like we were starting to control the game we seemed to lose
a wicket or two. The majority of the
boys did the hard work of getting in and then too many of us threw away our
wickets too easily. In saying that we still managed to compile a total of 210
with runs coming from Niraj De Silva (32), Scott McInerney (32) and Myself (44)
Week two we were defending our “ok” total on a freshly mowed
ground that was like an ice rink for both the ball and some fielders who
struggled to keep their feet (mainly the uncoordinated captain) We got a wicket
early before the Belgrave boys went about compiling their innings total with
the help of some loose bowling and sloppy fielding from our boys. Half an hour
prior to tea they were looking in control before Adz Metherell took a few quick
wickets to have the game evenly poised at 4/90 odd. After tea we took control
of the match bowling Belgrave out for 145. The best of the bowlers were Shan
Small with an impressive 11 overs 7 maidens 0/8, Adam Metherell with 15 overs
4/43 and Nav Singh 9 overs 2/11.
A game that we look back on as a scrappy effort in parts
from our guys but never the less an important 6 points to have us 4th
going into this week’s T20 against back to back premiers Knoxfield. The boys
are keen for another crack at the reigning premiers after last year’s double
super over defeat in the corresponding fixture.
Butch
2nd XI vs Belgrave @ Belgrave Recreation Reserve
Round 7 already! Jeepers, this season is going quick! After
a couple of frustrating games that have been affected by adverse weather it was
nice to see the sun briefly poke through the clouds on day one of our match
against Belgrave up in the hills.
Sitting pretty on top of the ladder we were still full of
confidence if not quite playing our best cricket so far this season. A number
of changes in the side so far has made it difficult to find our mojo as a team
but nevertheless we have performed well when it counts.
Winning the toss for an eleventh straight time I really
wanted to bowl as we haven’t thrown the cherry around in almost a month, but I
panicked and elected to bat first. We welcomed back young gun Callum O’Connor
and so too did the giant Belgrave opening bowler as he sent him on his way
first pill with a rude short ball first up. Disappointing to lose a good young
bat early but the ever-reliable Gerard ‘Brick Wall’ Jongen joined the super
talented and in form Stuckey at the crease and we looked to rebuild. To the opening bowlers credit, they bowled well early and made the runs hard to come by
which is never the case for our batsmen. Lachie surprisingly walked to a bump
ball, Old Morro was cruelly adjudged leg before and he was soon followed by
Young Morro with the score now 4/38. We were in a bit of a pickle but some
great patience from Gerard and some lusty blows from Old Wylde and we went
about recovering slightly before Dyl skied one for a brisk 20 and Gerard
followed soon after for a controlled 42 seeing us now 6/90. Very Old Mulder
joined the supremely confident Mitch Gregory and the two rode their luck and
got us to 119 before Foxy also skied one which had the now quite angry skip in
before tea!
7/125 at tea and not in a great position we had to just bat
some time and Mitch ‘Bombs x 6’ Gregory was controlled in blocking leaving or
depositing the ball literally 40 metres over the small boundary for maximums. After
Mitch fell for a well made 48, myself and the underrated but extremely good-looking
tail order bats did what we could and scrounged around to get the total to a competitive
195 all out and gave us a good chance with a demon like bowling attack. We then
had just under an hour to bowl and we managed to snag 2/13 off 14 with Old Man
Withers claiming both poles and finished the day on a high.
Week two came around and the weather was finally good enough
to finish the game, luckily Drew and Mitch turned up just in time for play
after their sensual massage session and we can expect some fines for that effort!
After claiming 2 wickets prior to the day we felt pretty confident we could get
the job done around tea time. Fox Mulder in game 202 wound back the clock and
charged in to take 3 of the first 4 wickets of the day in no time showing he’s
still got plenty of tricks up his sleeve setting the batsmen up perfectly, over
after over. Drew also started brilliantly again as the two pretty much put the
game beyond doubt claiming the first 7 between them for just 60 runs. We
literally turned to spin as the ‘King’ young Joshy McGowan and myself bowled in
tandem to pick up a wicket each. Josh spun the ball sideways continually going
past the edge while I couldn’t have bowled much more boring as they refuse to
play many shots. The skip gave up getting the last wicket, so I brought on the
reluctant Mitch Gregory to clean up the last wicket, but they refused to play a
further shot until we brought back chief destroyer and pick of the bowlers Drew
who claimed his 5th to end up with 5/46 in a great display. All the
bowlers were great, and we rolled them 57 short of their target signalling a
comfortable win in the end.
Still on top and looking to finish off the year this week undefeated
as we take on Knox Boronia in a Christmas Eve Eve T/20.
Daine
3rd XI vs St John's Tecoma @ Talaskia Reserve
We ventured out to beautiful Talaskia Reserve to take on St Johns
– Tecoma following a disappointing draw against Olinda where the rain almost
certainly cost us getting the points. Once again I won the toss and we decided
to bat first. Rhys and I opened the batting as usual with Rhys hitting 36 in
the opening stand of 44 which only lasted around 8 overs. From there Josh Wylde
came in at three and we had to work extremely hard for our runs early on
against a pretty honest attack that was just trying to wait for our mistake.
Just as we got going I fell for 39 and Josh fell a few balls later for 47 which
left us at 3/131.
Adam Wylde and Reidy set about rebuilding the innings and got
through to tea which was a world record 54 overs into the days play, with Reidy
tragically run out for 14 just after the break with the score on 192. Mitch
Potts looked to continue the good form he showed against Olinda, however, he
never got going falling for just 3 in a partnership of 30 with Adam who was
starting to hit them to all parts of the ground. Pint sized Spencer Stuckey was
in at 7 and immediately looked to put the opposition on the back foot with a
flurry of boundaries. He and Adam put on 108 to completely take the game away
from them with Spencer falling for 47. Tom Wylde joined his cousin to finish
the innings with 2 not out. Adam was clearly the pick of the batsmen with a
wonderful 132 not out which included 17 fours and 2 sixes. He only gave one
chance for his entire innings and other than that was flawless. Hopefully Adam
can continue his great form up in the 2s later this year and he is certainly
capable of doing so. Our final score was 6/348.
We came out the next week really flat and not with the intensity
we would have liked. It can be difficult in games where you have essentially
sewn up the win on the opening week to put in the maximum effort with the ball.
They got off to a reasonable start before Mitch took wickets with the score on
34, 34 and 37 with Curnow also getting a wicket on 37 to have them reeling at 4
down. Nixon got his first wicket with the score at 68, however from there St
Johns put on a really good partnership of 73 before Tom came into the attack
and drew a false shot from a loopy full toss.
St Johns continued to dig in but they were no match for Mitch
(5/58 off 18.1), Nixon (3/64 off 12) and Curnow (1/32 off 13) as we dismissed
them in 54.1 overs for 175. Bailey Deckert again bowled really well with his
first 5 overs as maidens and ending with 0/7 off 7 overs, whilst Reidy (0/5 off
2) and Tom (1/3 off 2) were used sparingly as the front line bowlers did the
job. With 25 overs left in the day we asked St Johns to follow on, however
after 18 overs we decided to call the game off with them 1/51. Josh Curnow
picked up the only wicket of the innings and ended up with 5 overs, 1/6 and was
the pick of the bowlers in the 2nd innings. Our bowlers simply tired
out in warm conditions after long spells and they just lacked the penetration
in the 2nd innings to threaten for an outright victory.
Next week we take on Rowville at Knox Gardens #1. We are sitting 2nd
on the ladder and now 10 points off top but it is important we keep winning and
put the pressure on them after Christmas for that top spot.
Pottsy
4th XI vs Belgrave @ Wantirna College
This week we had Belgrave at home and we were keen to get
the points to get into the top 4.
I won the toss and given the conditions and Belgrave’s first
innings scores when batting first lately decided to send them into bat.
Myself and young De Silva started proceedings and we struck
early where I trapped one of the openers LBW to have them 1/12. Their captain
was next in and in his usual way of business was swinging out of his ass, but
he only managed a quick 15 before I had him caught behind with the score at
2/34. A bowling change saw the ever-reliable Scotty come into the attack and
their day got a whole lot worse with Scotty striking in his first over and they
were 3/34. Scotty made light work of them and they ended up losing 4/6 and
Scotty taking 4 sculps with them 5/40. Varum from the other end chipped in well
to take 2 as well as Jongas and Sammy with 1 each and we had them all out for
73.
Scotty and Deepak opened for us and had us off to a quick
solid start with us being none for 35 and Scotty was seeing them like
watermelons! He looked on and determined to put on a good score. Unfortunately,
as the old saying goes, shit gets wickets. Scotty skied a half tracker that
took forever and a day to get to him and after it was fumbled 4 times the catch
was taken and we were 1/35. Young Benny then came to the crease and himself and
Deepak went about business very nicely with Deepak showing great patience
playing himself in and seeing us past their total of 73 before Benny was
trapped in front to have us 2/101. Sammy was in next and himself and Deepak saw
the rest of the day out with Deepak finishing on 70 not out and unable to play
the following week and Sammy on 25. At this point we were 2/150 odd and we
could sniff the chance of an outright.
We came in this week and Jongas was straight in with Sammy
and neither wasted any time getting the scoreboard ticking over and they put on
a fantastic partnership until Jongas was caught on the boundary for 35 to have
us 3/249. Jay was in next and having been very unlucky all season batted very
well making 30 not out to support Sammy for yet another magnificent 100 not
out! I called the boys in and declared with the score at 3/318.
A quick huddle and we were out in the field ready to go for
the outright. Devo and young De Silva opened the bowling and wasn’t long before
Nikas had his first victim and they were 1/2. They had some luck go their way with
skied balls but Nikas struck again to have them 2/33 followed by Devos first
sculp without the score changing. After lunch Nikas got another one and I came
into the attack followed by a change seeing Varun come into the attack from the
other end. Varun sent stumps flying getting his first and I was able to pick up
3 wickets in quick succession for us to have them all out for 112 and the
outright victory.
This was a fantastic result, with a great team performance
and some spectacular individual results as well to put us into 3rd
on the ladder and give us a chance for the last 4 games of the season.
Crooky
