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 4^th 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 5^th 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 2^nd innings. Our bowlers simply tired out in warm conditions after long spells and they just lacked the penetration in the 2^nd innings to threaten for an outright victory.

Next week we take on Rowville at Knox Gardens #1. We are sitting 2^nd 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 3^rd on the ladder and give us a chance for the last 4 games of the season. 

Crooky