Our First and Third XIs have finished the season off with strong wins, cementing their places in this season’s finals series. For the ones, it was a nervous few hours with constant refreshing of the live scores from around the grounds. For the threes, it was an unstoppable second half of the season that saw them go from bottom of the ladder pre-Christmas to fourth at the end of round 14. See below for the two tales. Unfortunately, for the Seconds, Fourths and Fifths, no finals in 2020-21. But some positives, including a swashbuckling hundred from Veteran Richard Barker on Saturday, were definitely there for the taking.
Semi Finals
- First XI – Saturday 6/3 @ East Doncaster, 12:30pm – Zerbes Reserve
- Third XI – Saturday 6/3 @ Donvale, 12:30pm – Donvale Reserve (Oval #1)
If you can’t make it on the day, live scores from both games will be available on mycricket. Stay tuned for an update and links to a live stream if available.
First XI
THE EQUATION:
East Doncaster (1st) defeat Old Carey (4th), and winner of Monties v Marcellin goes to 4th place and a knock out semi. Simple really. If it rained, neither side goes into the 4. It didn’t rain!
The captain lost the toss again. For the record, this season, Jos won the toss 4 times and lost 9 times, of which the oppo sent Monties in 4 times of the 9! Message here is do not go to the casino with Jos!
THE MATCH:
The first over from Royboy typified the day – 2 dot balls, catch falling just short of gully, 6 over the road to the adjoining field, nicked to 2nd slip out, and dot – 1 for 6 at the end of the over. You never knew what would happen next!
At this stage, MOM (Maserati of Marcellin) entered and whacked 46 from 47 balls, including 2 big 6s and 4 4’s in a 57 run partnership before Brett got him caught. Then Black took control and batted thru for 65 no from 77 balls as they reached 7/192. Marcellin had set a challenging 193 off 40 overs to win.
Of bowling note was the return of Padders, on one leg, bowling dibbly dobblies (according to the captain) off his short run up. 1/21 off 8 wasn’t bad and the hammy ok.
At this juncture, mycricket had East Doncaster closed out for 135 by Old Carey. It was going to be nail biting.
For once, Monties top end delivered. 37 opening stand was probably the best for the season, 2nd wicket added 29 before Woodsy went for an entertaining 47 off 54 balls, and Blairy 29 (promoted up the order) added 70 off 11 overs with the captain. Even the members reserve, scattered around the ground, began feeling at 2/135 that victory was possible.
But this is Monties version 2021. Marcellin #6 bowler, Donnellan (of Donnellan Tyres) took over at the northern end, and 3 overs later, he had 4 for 5! Monties middle order gone again. Evidently, Donnellan played juniors and 3rd division with Monties!
At 6/142 here we go again we thought.
A ray of sunlight had Old Carey at 5 for 35 so our game looked important now.
Enter James Guley who carefully plotted his way home with the tail. Gules decided that waiting for the last over was risky business, so over 39 was targeted. A 4 and a last ball 6 from nowhere left Monties needing 3 in the last. A single to Padders, and unfortunately for Marcellin, their keeper missed the 2nd ball, 2 byes, win to Monties, semi-final for Monties, with 4 balls left and 8 down.
Gules 35 from 35, including 2 mighty 6’s the hero.
It should be noted that the north end of the ground was short and each team hit 6 6’s. On the other hand, the boundaries on both sides of the wicket went forever and a huge number of 3 runs were taken by both teams.
Along the way it was noted that Old Carey were all out for 78 off 31 overs v East Doncaster, and so 4th position was ours.
For the very statistically minded, Monties have batted 2nd for 8 of 13 matches, with a 4 win/4 loss result. The losses were chasing 235,208,126 and 193. The wins were chasing 148, 97,120 and 193. No idea what this means! The 5 times we batted 1st, we won 3 and lost 2.
So the semi-final is East Doncaster v Monties (1 v 4) away at Zerbes Reserve on Sat March 6th. As the captain pointed out, ED have dropped 1 game only in Round 3 v Marcellin by 2 runs in Nov 2020, a long time ago. And Monties nearly rolled them a few weeks ago.
A win and the GF beckons but let’s take 1 match at a time.
Go Monties
Third XI
Round 14 saw the 3rd XI travel to Glen Iris needling a win to cement our place in the top 4 and Glen Iris needing to win to avoid relegation.
Greeds won the toss and elected to bowl, which has seemed to be working well for us. Bobby C (1/13 off 5) got us off to a flyer, removing the dangerous Glen Iris opener, while at the other end Tim Noble (3/12 off 8) bowled the house down taking the next three wickets leaving Glen Iris right on the back foot at 4/28. From there our bowlers (and fielders), continued to pile on the pressure with Gaj (3/7 off 8) bowling superbly giving the batsmen nothing. He was supported well by Lachie Power (1/20 off 7), including a brilliant c&b and some great work in the field to provide a run out. In the end Glen Iris had no answers finishing 10/67 off 34 overs. An incredible effort from the boys especially with our season on the line!
With a small total to book ourselves a semi final berth, we looked to be positive early. Lachie Power (10) got us off to a flyer early before he was given out To our dubious LBW. From there Galts (34*) and Bonnett (21) never looked fazed punishing anything that was loose as we cruised to victory 2/69 off 13 overs.
Another great effort from the boys for our seventh win a row, hopefully the ‘juggernaut’ can continue into next week against Donvale in the semi finals!
Go Monts!!!
Good luck to both teams!