The U14C’s met with Surrey Hills today for their semi final.
On a dewy oval but under sunny skies the toss was made and Surrey Hills sent the team of 17 Mont Albert Cricket Club U14C’s in to bat. Max Allen(16) was our trusty sub and scorekeeper for the session and sadly Jacob Allen (17) was unable to join us for the game today but was never far from our thoughts.
So 15 were sent in with MACC U14C Captain Ronak Sen (1) and Henry Roga (2) first out to the crease as opening batsmen. After a respectable 12 and 7 runs respectively, both players retired after facing their 30 balls allowing Daniel Teele (3) and Mitchell Hedley (4) to continue. After a great partnership, Daniel Teele was caught for a very respectable 23 off 24 balls, leaving Nathan Woods (5) to join Mitchell at the crease. After facing 30 balls and making 16 runs, Mitchell was retired not out and Nathan continued to make a great total of 26 off 21 balls before being caught. Campbell Baddon (6) made 13 off 26 balls, Lucas Saunders (7) 3 from 10 and Hugo Thompson (8), 5 from 16 all being caught. Flynn Parker (9), Lucas Martin (10), Rahal Balaysuriya (11) and Alex Boyd made 10, 2, 6 and 2 runs before retiring before Jack Davies Sankey, Jeremy Nash and Tom Dodds came in at 13, 14 and 15 to finish our bating innings with a total of 177/7.
After a feast for lunch provided by our wonderful parents it was then time for MACC U14C to send Surrey Hills in to bat. After a ball from Hugo Thompson to their top batsman, our first wicket was taken by Mitch Hedley who took what the coach described as a ‘KFC classic catch’ as he dived sideways to catch the ball in mid air. Our next wickets came off balls from Hugo, Henry and Mitch with Jack being successful with 2 runouts and one catch-what a performance. Lucas Saunders then bowled out Surrey Hills player number 6 with the 7th wicket being set up by Lucas Martin and Jack again completing a runout. The 8th wicket came came off a ball and run out from Henry and Nathan with Ronak and Tom hitting the stumps for the 9th and 10th wickets.
Being a team of 17 has had it challenges this season and I would especially like to thank Owen Saunders who has coached and provided his never ending support to our boys and their cricket. He has been patient and understanding and this is evident through our boys performance today as they have learnt so much through your positive mentorship.
Thank you also to James Nash our Team Manager who has kept the team and our families up to date and got us to the right location in a season that has seen us travelling away each week with Ballyshannassy Oval being our home ground. He has read the ECA rule book over and over, defended the team and been there all the way.
We also need to thank Jeff Parker for his continued coaching assistance and the time he has given the boys to guide their cricket, skills and attitude to their cricket. A big shout out to our parents who also score for us week in and week out.
As we head towards our last game for the season and a final against Bulleen on Sunday the 15th of March, on behalf of all the boys we thank you the parents, carers, grandparents and friends because without you and your support at each game our boys wouldn’t be playing cricket or going on the adventure that a cricket season takes them on!
Good Luck U14C- you have shown resilience, sportsmanship, fairness and care towards each other, always encouraging and supporting each other to be better and to do your best for the team, each other and the club. You are an awesome bunch of boys and we are so very proud of you all.
Dani
Junior Co-ordinator
Mont Albert Cricket Club