Moe were scheduled to travel to Latrobe but an unplayable ground meant the game was transferred to Moe’s secondary ground, Moe Racecourse (with Ted Summerton unavailable due to next week’s WBBL).
In the corresponding fixture last season, also Round 6, the Lions had Latrobe 9/106 chasing 177 to win, before Duncan & Brierley made Moe nervous with a 44 run partnership until the last wicket fell.
LATROBE INNING 10/132 (49.4)
Latrobe won the toss and batted with a solid start from Coltman (11) & Meenakshi (28). Royce Colgrave (1/31) struck first for the Lions, bowling Coltman to break the 27 run opening stand. Callum Grant finally got to play his first game for Moe and thought he had Benn Zomer caught before Andrew Philip – to the shock of everyone – put down a simple chance. It didn’t take long to make amends as a reverse sweep attempt saw Zomer (28) bowled by Grant to claim his first wicket for the club. He followed it up with another wicket 3 runs later as Philip held onto the next one from Meenaskhi (28) to make it 3/70. Robert Blunt (1/26) bowled Freshwater (1) before Grant dismissed Bloomfield (9) & Chokununga (2) to take Latrobe’s collapse to 5/16, falling from 1/67 to 6/83. Grant finished with a stellar 4/14 (10) and could’ve had a five wicket haul on debut but coach Spiteri wasn’t able to hold onto a chance from Adam Duncan. Mick Zomer (15) & Duncan (14) added 31 for the 7th wicket before a 4/18 finish saw Latrobe all out for 132 in the final over. Ash Savige & a supremely economical Jarryd Atkinson got amongst the wickets to finish the innings strong for Moe and Blunt got a run out for the final dismissal.
Moe Bowling
Colgrave 1/31 (6), Taylor 0/16 (6), Blunt 1/26 (10), Grant 4/14 (10), Atkinson 1/9 (9), Savige 2/30 (8.4)
MOE INNING 7/134 (45.1)
Moe’s chase got off to a shaky start with new skipper Noah Kane 🦆 failing to trouble the scorers. Riley Baldi (29 off 55) & Andrew Philip (33 off 66) added 58 for the second wicket before falling in quick succession. Callum Grant (5 off 35) & Ash Savige (5 off 14) fell with the score on 82 to make it a 4/20 collapse. Paddy Spiteri (18 off 51) & Atkinson (8 off 32) steadied the ship and looked like they’d be there til the end, but again both set batsmen fell back to back at 6/114 & 7/116, leaving 3 wickets in hand, 17 runs to get and not much batting firepower in the tail to come. A quick cameo from Royce Colgrave (14* off 10) got Moe to the result with Clint Taylor (2*) at the other end. Anthony Bloomfield (3/22 off 10) was Latrobe’s best with the ball.
Moe start the ‘playing’ part of the season with a win and host Boolarra on the same ground next week.
