Moe v Willow Grove
The Wolves are the most likely in the division outside of the 4 to push for a finals berth and they fielded their strongest side of the season as they enter a 3 week stretch against top 4 opposition. Moe entered close to their strongest side of the season, though skipper Blunt was a late out to A’s with Josh Pickering coming back into the side in his place.
A good bowling performance by the Lions was overshadowed by another disappointing batting performance for the most part, the cracks covered slightly by salvaging 2pts from the jaws of defeat in a thrilling tie with Willow Grove, thanks to some never say die attitude hitting from Aaron Johnstone with fellow tail support from Hayden Edwards & Ben McCartney.
Willow Grove Innings–
Wilkes (9) looked on early, blasting Johnstone through covers and Edwards over the leg side for four. Wilkes was bowled the next ball which looked to be chopped on to the back of his own foot then rolled onto the stumps. Binstead (0) was bowled by Johnstone at the other end to have the Wolves in trouble at 2/9.
Darcy (12) & son of a Moe gun Hamish Phoenix (32, including 3 fours and a big six) pushed the visitors to 56 off 13 overs.
Pickering dismissed them in consecutive overs by him, with Atkinson having Wheildon (0) lbw in the over in between, a collapse of 3/3 to turn the tide. Josh Coombs (25 off 59) and Jacob Grima (5 off 49) frustrated the Moe bowlers, but couldn’t score heavily, slowly pushing the total to 92 after 33 overs, just 36 runs from the last 20.
Ben McCartney got the breakthrough of both at 6/93 & 7/95 on his way to 2/20 from 5 overs. Peter Grima (15*) offered slight resistance at one end before Aaron Johnstone took the tail out with 3 wickets in the space of 4 runs.
Willow Grove all out for 115. Johnstone finished with 4/13 from 6.4, Pickering 2/17 from 7, McCartney 2/20, and singles to Atkinson & Edwards. Mark Whitney bowled tight, conceding just 20 runs from 9 overs.
MILESTONE – Josh Pickering, 50 senior wickets.
Moe Innings–
Moe’s batting started off slow, with 12 runs from the first 8 overs. Braden Finn (6 off 26) hit a boundary to start the 9th then was trapped lbw two balls later. Fellow opener Mark Whitney was lbw on the full for 6 off 34 before Kye Micallef (0) was caught the following over, 3/23 and Moe in trouble.
After 24 overs, Savige & Atkinson had slowly pushed the total to 52, with 64 required from 21 overs. Atkinson (11 off 32, two fours) & Murphy (0) both were caught off Wheildon, 5/53 in the 27th.
️MILESTONE – Ash Savige ticked over 3000 senior club runs before being bowled by Coombs to end the 32nd over, out for 24 off 73 balls (three fours). 6/64, needing 52 off 13 overs.
Mustafa Glibanovic was next to go, bowled by Coombs for 2, 7/68 after 34 overs. 48 required from 66 balls. 15 more added by Johnstone & Oakley before Oakley was caught and bowled by Grima, for 12 off 40, also unable to get the strike rate going like most of his teammates before him.
8/83, 33 required off 28 and it looked over. Johnstone & Edwards added 17 off 16 balls, the latter caught for 7 off 9, 16 required off 12.
It became more apparent as the innings went on, that Grima & Coombs were bowling at the wrong ends, meaning Coombs bowled his 8th over in the 44th (4 off, finished with 2/19), unable to bowl out and the other four regular bowlers all finished their full allotments (Wilkes 2/16, Weatherhead 1/11, Wheildon 2/23 & Grima 2/34).
The ball was handed to youngster Hamish Phoenix for the final over, 12 required by Moe, one wicket in hand.
44.1 – Ben McCartney, 1 run. (11 off 5)
44.2 – Johnstone, FOUR (7 off 4)
44.3 – Johnstone, 1 run (6 off 3)
44.4 – McCarney, 1 run (5 off 2)
44.5 – Johnstone, 2 runs (3 off 1)
44.6 – Johnstone – 2 runs (Match Tied)
Willow Grove will rue what could’ve been but still take two points that could prove vital positively at season: end just as much as the dropped two points could negatively affect them subject to what they can achieve in the rest of the campaign.
On Moe’s end, it’s a snatch and grab for 2 points. The Lions can take positives out of the bowling and never giving up from a losing position. But a lot of work to be done with bat in hand. The 2nd XI hasn’t had a settled batting order with constant personnel changes due to unavailability or requirement in A Grade’s XI. It will need to be a more settled lineup in the back end of the year to have any chance of finding form going into finals. Now sit 3rd, two points behind Centrals and four behind Raiders.
