Another mixed weekend for MACC senior teams – two wins and three losses. But with injuries and availabilities improving, the depth at MACC is only set to improve for the upcoming final round of 2020 (yep, 2020 coming to an end…). Also, make sure you get along to the Christmas Picnic in the Park at Mont Albert Reserve on Saturday the 19th Dec from 5:30pm. Click Here for all the details.
Thanks to Ross Blair-Holt for his contribution this week for the First XI match report (from the lofty second story balcony at Heathmont). May it be the first of many more. And, we welcome skipper KJ back as the twos author this week, having been unimpressed with his stand ins this season. Read on to see how each skipper viewed the matches.
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First XI
The boys ventured to Heathmont to inspect the new pavilion, and take on the winless Heathmont.
We lost the toss and were sent in to bat. The wicket was very green and a 2 paced sh*t road (according to one of the MACC top order on his way back to the new sheds for very little! At 4 for 54 after 18 overs, we knew why we were batting first. Enter the Young Guns – James Guley and James Blair-Holt. They set about retrieving the position, and setting a respectable target to bowl at. At 171, after an exhilarating 117 run partnership, James G lost his wicket for a very well made 70 going for runs in the last overs. Enter another young gun, Adge, with the captain’s words ringing in his ears – see ball, hit ball! 5 4’s and a 6 had Adge at 28 not out off 11 balls. James BH thoughtfully gave the strike to Adge during this onslaught, and ended with very well constructed 55 not out.
“They batted maturely, consolidating early before taking toll towards the back end of the innings with some lusty blows!” Jack Joslin said after the game, describing the actions of Guley, Blair-Holt and Adgemis. Joslin also described the efforts of Guley and Blair-Holt as “a match winning partnership… 117 for the 6th wicket.”
The team made a bankable 206 in 40 overs.
As the MACC oldies settled in with a few afternoon refreshments, Heathmont threw the kitchen sink at MACC, and at 2/60 after 9 overs, alarm bells were ringing. De Silva, their gun batsman, was finding the fence with monotonous regularity. Enter Blairy with a spectacular running diving catch off the fence, and De Silva was gone. Brett Watkins stopped the rot at one end with 5 overs for 9 runs. The spinners then got down to work and cleaned up the tail. At one stage, Nat McNally had 3 for 4, and SK Patel ended with 3 after taking 2 late wickets. It would be remiss not to mention 2 other spectacular catches, one by Roy Boy running and diving low just above the ground and a beauty by Guley flinging himself sideways at short cover. Heathmont out for 123, losing the last 7 wickets for 24.
“A convincing win after a shaky start with the bat.” said Joslin on Sunday, and he couldn’t help mentioning that “match winning partnership with the bat between Guley and Blair-Holt – fantastic stuff.”
So good lessons learned, not the least being catches win matches.
By the way, the pavilion is wonderful – great sheds, good hospitality areas and a great viewing of the Dandenongs (and the cricket!).
Now to the last game this year being winless Surrey at Surrey, followed by a picnic at the Club and then Xmas.
Go Monts!!!
Second XI
We won the toss on a glorious day for cricket and had a bat. Young guns Woodsy and Loz navigated their way through the first 4 while the ball was doing its thing and then started to capitalise on some short pitched stuff which Woodsy in particular seemed to enjoy.
Things were going very nicely…… Until we lost them both in the space of two balls. After that we really struggled to build anything that looked like a decent partnership, with another all too familiar collapse during the middle overs. We fought our way to 118. Realistically, 50-60 runs short to have given us a sniff.
Jacki and the smut man started nicely with the new pill, with Lachie picking up a pole for his troubles. On such a nice batting track with only 118 to play with, the game got away from us pretty quickly after a relatively solid first ten overs with the ball. Burwood knocked them off 2 down with 16 left. A pretty disappointing performance.
We end the year with Boronia at home and another chance to prove we’re up to it and finish the year on a high, ready to hit 2021 hard.
Third XI
Round 5 saw the 3rd XI host Surrey Hills on a cracking day for cricket. Surrey won the toss and elected to bat.
The pitch seemed to be a bit ‘poppy’ early with Lachy Power (3/14 off 6) taking full advantage. Partnered with some tight bowling from Bobby C (0/16 off 5), Lachy ripped through the top order to have Surrey in trouble early at 3/21. With our tails up and the fielding at a high standard we were able to continuously take regular wickets throughout the innings. Nobby (2/13 off 8) and Smitta (2/22 off 8) bowled superb line and length to give the Surrey batsmen nothing having them 7/65. From there Udhav (2/7 off 3) and Chippa (1/21 off 3) partnered to finish off the tail bowling Surrey out for 93. A really good all round effort from all the boys.
Apart from losing Galts in the first over we were never really challenged in chasing down the runs. Gules (22) and Bonnett (25) showed really good intent with their running between the wicket piling the pressure on the fielders as they looked to attack at every opportunity putting on a quick 31. From there Greeds (37*) and Bonnett put on a quick fire 58 to take any chance away from Surrey. Bonnett took 19 off one of the openers overs in which he is still seething about!
Really pleasing to get our first win on the board hopefully we can continue this form throughout the season! Go Monts!
Fourth XI
The 4s were away this week against Donvale looking to notch up our first win for the year. We won the toss and elected to have a bat on a typical Donvale road. Jordan Dean and Tim Haworth (28) opened up and put on 43 for the first wicket until Dean chopped on. Haworth fell shortly afterward and from there we struggled to put together any significant partnerships to take advantage of the favourable conditions. Urmez Patel compiled a nice 31 through the middle overs and Ash Tonn took us to the end of the 40 overs with a well made 41 not out. Unfortunately, wickets always fell in lots of 2 and we could never put the hammer down on them. We finished our 40 overs with 151 on the board. Probably not enough on a ground like Donvale 2, but something to bowl at nonetheless.
Tyrie Wilkinson and Rufus McLean opened the bowling for us and Donvale were aggressive from the outset. We were unlucky that none of the loose shots they played fell to hands as the boundaries started flowing. We were able to nab 5 wickets in the end but Donvale chased down the score in 26.5 overs. The highlights coming from Dave Laird (2/37 off 7.4) and Quentin McLean who went Horizontal Stick again to take a ripper diving catch running back, pulling out the Hulk move to celebrate! Another disappointing weekend, but onwards and upwards.
Fifth XI
We were at home where we played North Balwyn North. We lost the toss and North Balwyn batted first. Ronak Sen struck early with a simple catch to Sammy Taylor and he then followed up with another wicket a few overs later that was rip snorter. The ball cut back off seam, went between bat and pad and clipped the top of off. We had them 2/37 off eight overs and looked a real chance but then they dug in with some good straight patient batting and they got away from us. North Balwyn punished the bad balls and kept the good balls out. James Nash and Bill Allen bowled tight finishing with 1/17 and 2/14 respectively. But it was not enough to stop North Balwyn making 6/203 off their 35 overs.
We were never in the run chase. North Balwyn’s balling was full and straight with very few loose delivers. In reply we only made 6/115, but we managed to bat out our 35 overs. Tanvir backed up his excellent innings of last week with 35 and he was well support by James Nash who made 19 no.
In short we were out bowled, out batted and out fielded. However we did not drop our heads and kept trying all day, even though it was a tough day in the office.