Unavailability (various reasons) meant Moe were missing five of their best XI, coming up against probably the most in-form team in Morwell. Daniel Farmer, Jagbir Singh and mature-age debutant Randy Straughair (on the back of B Grade scores of 85 & 60*) came into the side for Riley Baldi, Ash Savige & Bailey Wilson. Could the understrength Lions beat the Tigers for a third one day match running?
MORWELL INNINGS
Morwell won the toss and after batting first 11 out of 14 times last season, Moe bowled first for the fourth consecutive match. Kris Fortuin scored only boundaries in his effort of 12 (18) before Royce Colgrave caught him off his own bowling. At the first bowling change (1/38 off 11, Colgrave 1/19 off 6, Blunt 0/19 off 5), the Tigers were slightly on top. Daniel Farmer (0/14 off 5) was economical but unable to make the breakthrough as Lachlan Day (52 off 97) and Jordan Campbell (95 off 115) added 150 for the second wicket. Day survived a dropped catch off Farmer’s bowling. Jarryd Atkinson (0/29 off 5) had several lofted efforts fall just short of men in the deep and a very tough caught behind chance also went begging. Jag Singh (0/17 off 2) was unable to replicate last week’s B Grade form. For a while in the Day/Campbell partnership. Morwell were looking at posting a score north of 250 pushing 300, but the Lions managed to stem the flow a little. Late in Sean Spiteri’s spell (2/54 off 10), he got the breakthrough dismissing both of the set batsmen in his 9th & 10 overs to make it 3/173 with 65 balls remaining in the innings. With wickets in hand, Morwell were targeting a big finish. Wickets fell again in the next 2 overs as Callum Grant (1/38 off 10) had potential danger man Blake Mills (9) dismissed cheaply and also effected a run out of Connor Seymour (3) at 5/182, a loss of 4/16. Greg Harvey (18 off 23) helped propel the score beyond 200. He survived a diving catch attempt that went for four just wide of the fielder’s outstretched effort, a dropped catch for two then was caught in the deep, all in the space of four balls. Douglas (9*) & Gettings (17*) got the Tigers through to 6/235 off 50 overs.
Moe Bowling
R.Colgrave 1-37 (9) – R.Blunt 1/40 (9) – D.Farmer 0/14 (5) – C.Grant 1/38 (10) – S.Spiteri 2/54 (10) – J.Singh 0/17 (3) – J.Atkinson 0/29 (5)
MOE INNINGS
In the absence of Baldi, Sean Spiteri opened with Noah Kane hoping to build on the first wicket pairings that have totalled 198 runs in the two weeks. Unfortunately that didn’t prove the case as Spiteri was run out for 2 at 1/15. After a 150 run stand between Day & Campbell earlier, the 2nd wicket partnerships for the day totalled 273 runs as Kane & Andrew Philip put on 123 for the 2nd paring. Philip scored the majority of that with 80 off 91 balls including 11 fours and a six. At 1/138 the Lions were cruising but the wickets of Philip, Pat Spiteri (7 off 22), Kane (68 off 104, including 7 fours), Singh 🦆 and Grant (5 off 11) saw Moe lose 5/37 and swing the tide well in Morwell’s favour with 61 required off 58 balls but no set batsman at the crease and running out of wickets in hand. Jarryd Atkinson & Royce Colgrave (6 off 14) added 19 for the 7th wicket with 42 off 27 required at Colgrave’s dismissal. Blunt added 9 off 15 but by the time he was caught, the equation was 22 off 10. Randy Straughair made 3 off 3 balls on debut, bowled in the same over. Atkinson (19* off 34) & Farmer (2* off 3) were unbeaten at the close of 9/218, going down by just 17 runs. A gallant outing by the understrength Lions, with the promoted players making solid contributions to the efforts. Blake Mills (3/35), Travis Pickering (2/32) & Stephen Bilic (2/38) took multiple wickets for Morwell. Excluding Philip & Kane, Morwell restricted the rest of the batting lineup to just 2 boundaries which really set up their victory. Full credit must be noted to the Tigers for that, and from Moe’s viewpoint, the same statistic was an example of the toll of the absences from the regular batting lineup.
Regardless of the result it does show promise to match it with the best in the Premier A Grade division following last season’s promotion.
Next week, the Moe come up against Raiders who have the wood over the Lions, winning 4 out of 5 matches (3x one day & 1x two day) since the LVDCL’s inception, Moe only winning a 20/20 between the sides in 2018/19, the last time both teams were in the same division. The last two seasons in cross-division one day matches, Raiders have chased 184 & 203 losing just 1 & 2 wickets in those wins.
