1^st XI vs Johnson Park @Fair Park

After a long Pre-season it was great to finally get out on the park for round 1. We ventured to Johnson Park who were keen to improve on a disappointing season last year.

We won the toss and elected to bat first against the new white ball. The sun was out and conditions were good for batting. Butch (44) was brilliant early with a return to the top of the order until he was out caught top edging one. He really set the tone for the innings and made it easier for me to play the anchor role at the other end. At drinks we were 1/99 and sitting in a real positive position with Jack and myself at the crease. I was next to go and Big Head Burls came and went quickly looking to try and clear the pickets a few times to quicken the run rate up. Jack was next to go for 26 and batted well but needs to turn those starts in to big scores. We then had solid contributions the whole way down the list from Joe, Boofa, stuck, Mitch and Scotty to get us past 200 which looked 20 short at the time.

We came out with clear plans on how we wanted to start and Todd and Wilbur delivered with the ball. We knew the easiest time to score was against the new ball and those guys did a great job early along with plenty of help from the fielders. Mitch showed some promise after a nervy start and also bowled well.
JP however rode their luck and chances their eye and were able to push the score a bit on the fast outfield. Enter Scotty Mac. He got to quick breakthroughs but more importantly he was able to put the breaks on. This allowed Meth and Mitch to bowl under far less pressure and that period of the game we grabbed momentum of JP and created chances through pressure that we applied. We eventually knocked them over for 163.
Apart from giving away a few cheap runs at the end when the game seemed done I think we did a lot right and as a bowling group we were able to bowl in partnerships and create opportunities for others.

The positives we take out are that our fielding skills were excellent and we were able to get through pressure periods whilst batting and bowling and worked together to get the job done in both crafts. It’s not about the wickets or runs column against your name that counts it’s the one next to the team totals that are important. We played with that attitude on Saturday and we got the result.

Looking forward to next week and another big challenge.

Pete

2^nd XI vs South Belgrave @Knox Gardens Reserve

Round one finally upon us and the challenge of moving up to DeCoite Shield awaiting our 2nd XI players for the new season.

South Belgrave the opponent on a pleasant sunny afternoon at Argyle way. Just the two changes from our premiership winning side from last season and we were full of confidence with a strong and handsome side.

The sweet ping of the coin as I tossed it to perfection was unfortunately met with a tail that never failed so we got sent into the lightning quick, barren field. Dale ‘Wickets’ opened up with the fresh faced Curney to try and swing the ball around corners and pick up some crucial early poles. The first pill found the edge and raced away passed second slip for 4 and unfortunately that set the tone for a day without much luck in the field. A couple of near misses backed up by some brilliant fielding, especially from Dos Bradman no less and some quality stroke making made for an entertaining start but not the one we were after. The first wicket fell in the 18^th over with the score on 76 and at drinks SB were 1/78 and we were quite happy with bringing the run rate back with some tidy bowling from a couple of old timers. Some good batting from their skipper and the score raced to 2/154 in the 32^nd over before he was dismissed by our charismatic 2^nd XI leader thanks to a good pair of mits in the deep. From there Curn, Drew, Nav and myself all toiled hard in tough conditions but continually had near misses which saw the white ball fly around the park. Nav and Foxy bowled well while I bowled well at times to find three scalps. South Belgrave ended their innings posting 6/213, a score we thought was around par on the freshly cut Knox Gardens reserve.

With the promotion of our reliable and at times extremely foul-mouthed Stuckey to the 1^st XI Gerard was heard whispering that he would like the chance at the top of the order and so, I obliged. He joined evergreen Pops Morrison and we started in trademark blistering fashion clubbing 29 from the first 4 overs before the brakes were unfortunately planted. The bowling was tight especially after the departure of Pops for a run a ball 19. Our young top order looked very comfortable at the crease when pint sized Adam Wylde joined G-unit but good field placing made the gaps hard to find and so the runs dried up. From there, although we never looked in trouble of losing wickets the frustration of not being able to pick the gaps was starting to show. Even though we had almost identical scores at the drinks break we were unable to find the momentum needed to lift the scoring rate as our bats got themselves in and then got themselves out with no one capitalising and hitting the big scores needed. Five scores between 14 and 23 adding to Gerard’s very good 42 meant we didn’t have the match winner required to chase down the total ending up 8/177 off our 40 overs.

Not our best performance but we were right in the game the whole day and with a little more luck and more adventurous stroke play we could have taken the 6 points. Far from disgraced and knowing we have much better performances in us for the rest of the season we can't wait to lift our standards next week.

Daine

3rd XI vs South Belgrave @ Belgrave South Recreation Reserve

We had South Belgrave away at Belgrave South Recreation Reserve for the first game of the season. I was the stand in captain as Pottsy was away this round.

We won the toss and decided to have a bat first. Rhys and Jay opened and got us off to a flyer getting us to about 70 off the first 5 overs where Rhys bought up his fifty while Jay still on single figures. Eventually Rhys missed a straight one and was trapped LBW for 63 after a very exciting start to the year. I then came in and because of the blistering start it made it easier for Jay and I to bat with less pressure and steady through the middle overs. Shortly after Jay bought his 50 up in his debut in the 3s I fell for 40.
Carlton came in with around 10 overs left and put on a cameo to end up on 49*. Jay finished on 62 after a wonderful innings. Little Spence chipped in with a handy 20* and we ended on 3/254

With a huge total on the board we came onto the field with a lot of confidence that we would get the job done. Bailey and Nix opened the bowling and with a good spell of bowling we restricted them to 1/26 off the first 10 which put the game out of reach for them. Everyone bowled and fielded well with Kingy chipping in for a couple of wickets off his 8 to keep them to 7/202 after their 40 overs. Awesome result to start the season and hopefully we can bring this momentum over to next week.

Josh  

4^th XI vs Mountain Gate @Knox Gardens Reserve #2

 

This week we had Mountain Gate at home. I lost the first toss and we were sent into bat.

Porno and Deepak opened for us and got us off to a great start before Deepak was unluckily bowled around his legs with the score on 1/16. Lamby came in next and himself and Porno steadied for us. In what was some of the best timed striking of the ball I have ever seen from Porno. Unfortunately, Lamby chopped one back onto the stumps and we lost our second wicket for 63. Sammy came and it wasn’t long before Porno was out caught for a great 50 with the score at 3/71. Rupert came in and provided great support for Sammy who was looking solid as always before Rupert was given out LBW to a full toss with the score on 4/92. Monty who filled in for us was in next and he managed to pick out the fielder as well before the score was 5/105. Crawford was in next and with an already strained back unfortunately was bowled and we were 6/113 and not quite were we wanted to be. I combined with Sammy and he did what he does best and made life easy for me and he made a well deserved 56 before going out trying to up the run rate with us 7/161. Varun was in next and did exactly what we needed from him and he hang around with myself with 4 overs to go where I was able to score freely to see us finish on 7/204 which was a great result for us.

Lamby and myself opened the bowling  with leg byes and byes being the only way runs were coming off as the bowling was great and we didn’t give them chances to score. The break through came in the 6^th over where I was able to get the opener out bowled and also managed to get their first drop out for a duck and we had them at 2/14. We continued the tight bowling with Varun coming into the attack with Lamby and he was able to get the breakthrough and we had them 3/37. A quick bowling change with me filling in an over before Sammy came on and I managed to get the other opener out and they were 4/39 after 15 overs and needed to start going for it. That is exactly what they did and Sammy was very unlucky to have a few put down that should have stuck. Him and Varun keep persisting well and finally after Greg Bakker came on for Varun we got the breakthrough with the score 5/87. From there between Sam and Greg Bakker we got a team hattrick and Sam got some well deserved reward and we had them 8/99 with the final wicket falling with them being all out for 100!

This was a great result for us for our first game and I was very happy with the fantastic way we played as a team. Porno’s batting set us up beautifully, Sammy dominated really well in the middle overs and gave us the ability to finish on a very competitive score and have them under pressure from the first ball. Lamby was very unlucky not to get a wicket and some of the bowlers were unlucky with dropped chances but overall everyone bowled fantastically. There is room to improve and I have no doubt that we will do this as we progress through the season. 

Crookie