1^st XI vs The Basin @ Knox Gardens Reserve

After a loss last week that left plenty of positives but also plenty to learn from the 1^st XI took on The Basin at home in round 2.

Having won the toss and choosing to bat, the game plan was to be more aggressive this week, as we identified that we were probably a tad too tentative in round one which left us 24 runs short of the target. Niraj and Shan opened up again and looking to get us off to the same start as last week. Niraj fell early with the score on 17, Club Coach Joe Morsello came to the crease and steadied the ship along with Shan as they put on a 40 run partnership before Joe was dismissed on 18 and the score 2/57. Keeping in mind that we had been bogged down the week prior in the same situation we were keen to keep backing ourselves in and keep taking the game to The Basin attack. Shannon was dismissed with the score on 88 with his contribution 33. This brought big bad bustling Boof Gregory to the crease. We identified that keeping the score ticking over was crucial, but we thought we could turn the momentum in our favour by running hard with quick singles, but also plenty of 2’s and 3’s whilst taking the bowler on when it was in our hitting zone. We managed to put on a 104 run partnership through the middle of the innings and when I was dismissed for 87 the score was on 192. Boof followed quickly after for another well-made 33. It was important we didn’t lose any momentum at the end of our innings and Youngy (22*) Jack Marget (12) and Scotty Mac (6*) ensured that we got ourselves a decent total. In the end we finished on 6/233 from our 40 overs.

With The Basin posting 275 in round one we knew that we were going to have to bowl well to ensure that we took the 6 points from the game. We started off pretty poorly with the ball, our bowlers were giving up too many boundary balls each over and it gave The Basin all the momentum in the early stages of their innings. Adam Metherell came on just before drinks and taking 2 crucial wickets to have them at 2/90 at drinks. The plan was after drinks to take the pace of the ball as much as possible and make it hard for them to score boundaries with a softer ball. This worked well with our 3 spinners in Youngy, Nav and Adam doing a terrific job. At the 30 over mark the game was in the balance at 5/160. To our credit our bowlers bowled with excellent discipline and our fielding was terrific also with 3 runouts. In the end our total got too much for The Basin and we won by 25 runs with them reaching 9/208. Adam Metherell was again the pick of the bowlers with 3/32 off his 8, Youngy took 2/46 off his 8 and Shan Small did a great job at the death bowling 5 overs 1/32.

We take a great deal of confidence out of that win on Saturday and look forward to taking on last year’s runners up in Upper Ferntree Gully in our first 2-day game of the season. Thanks to all the people who turned up on Saturday and supported us, it’s great to have you guys behind us each week.

Butch

2^nd XI vs The Basin @Batterham Reserve #2

Not knowing what to think about our round one mauling thanks to a superb team effort, we came into our round 2 clash with The Basin full of confidence but fully aware they have been great rivals over the past few seasons in division 3 and would be tough to beat.

It was great to see when we arrived we were already demoted to the back oval after a stuff up with their pitch and surrounding areas over the past couple of weeks meaning a slight uphill walk to the pitch instead of the leisurely stroll down to the main ground.

Once again winning the toss and elected to bat first with a similar team which in included the fun-loving cricket tragic ‘Curney’ and the unfortunate axing of crowd favourite ‘hard hitting Nibby’ which we hope to see back soon.

Young Stuckey, this week with a much more clean-cut look than round one after shaving back to his iconic pencil thin moustache opened again with ‘heart right Morrison’ and the two batted in stark contrast to each other. Morro was swinging at anything near the cut stuff whilst ‘Pedro’ wasn’t at his barnstorming best instead being tied down by the lack of pace.

The two got off to a solid start though until Morro somehow outrun his younger opener and Stuckey was left short of his ground. Cal and Josh came and went and Dyl swung hard but couldn’t find the leather. Morro departed after hitting a certain wide delivery down the throat of a fielder on the fence for a less than convincing 66 but did a job. Gerard, son of the great Ian Jongen took a great opportunity to stake his claim for top order position with a calm and composed but still run a ball 50 which held the latter innings together. Mitch Gregory bombed one into the houses before a dubious leg before from former mate Drew Withers and the innings was closed at 7/180 off our 40 overs.

A lengthy spray from an unhappy skipper before the tea break soured the usually delicious sandwiches but got the team up for the start of our 2^nd innings.

Once again we got off to a brilliant and possibly lucky start claiming 5 wickets in the space of 7 overs. Who am I kidding, it was all due to the miraculous presenting of the seam by the man with a thousand nicknames of which I can’t think of one at the moment…… Dreamboat Drew snared all 5 and the game was all but dusted with a bowling line up most teams dream of to come. We bowled and fielded well (not as well as Drew) but good enough to send out a warning to all other teams that we like to win and enjoy doing so. We also have the biggest weapon in the comp in our side, Callum O’Connor’s calves! Mitch once again took poles and celebrated accordingly.

2-0 and looking forward to our first 2 dayer and first game on home soil.

Daine

3^rd XI vs Lysterfield @ Lakesfield Reserve

We ventured out to Lysterfield to take on the reigning Division 4 premiers who like us were coming off a clinical round 1 win. We knew this would be a big test for us coming up against a quality second eleven outfit and it proved to be exactly that. They day started well as I called correctly and we decided to have a bat first. Rhys and I again opened the batting and we were off to a reasonable start before I was caught at 2nd slip for 8 with the score on 19. Hard Hitting Nibby came to the crease at first drop and was cautious at the beginning of his innings. He and Rhys put on 46 before the latter was caught trying to go over the top for 44. Dosman came in at his usual spot of 4 and worked hard with Nibby, although not finding the flow to his innings that he had last week. They put on 35 before Dosman skied a pull shot straight to midwicket to leave us 3/100.

Lamby was next in and he and Nibby batted perfectly together in their partnership of 46 with the runs ticking over well. Unfortunately Nibby was caught behind for a well made 45, showing that he is more than capable of playing at a higher level. Reidy was next in and he would be the first to admit this isn’t his ideal situation, but I actually thought he batted really well with lamby and they put on 36 before Lamby was again trapped in front for 44. Unfortunately following this we stalled and Reidy went out for 21. Sam Bakker was 8 not out and debutant Bailey Deckert finished on 0 not out. We only scored 13 runs from our final 5 overs to finish with 197. Unfortunately at this level that isn’t really acceptable to only score at just over 2 an over in your last 5 overs and that made our score probably 20 runs short of par.

We came out fired up in the field and both Devo and Varun were tight early. Devo scored the wicket of our old sparring partner Moore for not many. Unfortunately this brought Dosmans good close personal friend Kieran Edwards to the crease who combined with Simon Grimston for a partnership that was taking the game away from us. Despite good bowling efforts from Bailey and King they were keeping with the run rate and went in to drinks at 1/98. After drinks myself and Reidy came on and just bowled slow stuff and made them hit the ball. This worked to a degree with Reidy getting both the let batsmen out and I had the run rate under control. Unfortunately they took to me in the end and Lamby came on and they took to him. We only had 8 overs the Reidy could bowl and he was by far the pick of the bowlers ending with 2/39. In the end they passed us pretty comfortably with 7 wickets in hand and 4 overs to go.

In the end we did so much right early and so much wrong after that. We finished at least 20 short of where we needed to be and we dropped a few chances. I told the guys that you really can’t afford to do this in Division 4 and that good batsmen who have played DeCoite and Norm Reeves Shield in the past will punish you for those errors. Today they did and it is a learning curve for us, what we could get away with in Division 5 last year, we can’t get away with this year in Division 4. That brings about a challenge for us and the challenge is to work hard on your game and adapt to the situations as well as remaining cool, calm and collected.

We face Rowville next week who baring a 5/0 catastrophe in round 1 would have been undefeated. They are a 2nd XI side and they will be a tough opponent. We will look to work hard on the track and get back on the winners list.

Pottsy

4^th XI vs Johnson Park @ Fair Park #2

After coming off a loss in round 1 with a somewhat depleted side, I lost the toss and we bowled, given that it was only round 2 and not many of us had trained my message was to do your best and to work into your spell as there would be some wayward bowling at times.

We opened with the unluckiest bowler in the comp and Nikhil who both subsequently took a wicket with their first over, they both bowled beautifully and after 10 overs we had them 2 -15, with Crooky 5 overs 1 - 11 and by that stage there were 2 chances dropped off the unlucky one and Nikkas with 5 overs 1 - 3, exactly what was asked of them.

All the other bowlers certainly played their part and bowled tight but as we know they were always going to have a crack as they were 4 - 72 off 25 at one point.

Johnson park finished their overs with 9 - 130. A special mention goes to a young fella with the last name Wylde ....... not you Tom who took an absolute screamer fielding in close and took it diving close to the ground. 

We opened up the batting with myself and Deepak, I didn't last long trying to hit over the top maybe I should have taken my own advice, Deepak got a start and unfortunately I had to give him plum LBW 2-9, a couple of others went cheaply when benny and young gun Jay Wagner put on a great partnership to keep building on our somewhat slow scoring but it was difficult to score as the grass again was quite long, Benny finished with a solid 15 and Jay 11.

In came another guy with the name Wylde who bowled well but we desperately needed him to make runs as we know he can, trying to move the score along he was out with hard fought top score of 21.

At this point we thought we were maybe running out of batsman when Gregor and Raj came together, even though it doesn't show on the score board except for his massive FIRST ever 6 in a game of cricket Andy stuck around and was a huge help to Rag who batted probably the best I have seen him bat and scored 13 run out.

With not many for us to win we had Crooky and Nikkas at the crease needing only a few to win, only for me (umpire at the time) close my eyes every time Crooky was on strike coz I wasn't sure what was going to happen but in the end he and Nikkas guided us home with our first win in the last over. 

It was great to see guys putting a price on their wicket even though the individual scores weren't high each and every one had a part in a great win for us to kickstart our season

Scotty