A poor day in the higher grades, with A’s behind on 1st innings at stumps after Day 1 and B’s losing from a very commanding position. Our 3rd XI entered the Xmas break on a high with two T20 wins in their double header. Full reports below.
Premier A Grade – Imperials v Moe (Day 1)
In an early start due to NBL in the precinct that evening, Imperials won the toss and sent Moe in. The Lions got off to a strong start with Callum Grant (41) & Rob Phoenix (21) putting on a 62 run opening stand before the pair fell in quick succession. Andrew Philip (24) scored practically all of the 26 run stand with Benn Zomer. The Lions were 2/92 before a disastrous collapse of 8/25 including 4 ducks. Zomer’s 20 was the only double figure score in that time. Royce Colgrave (15) & Ben McCarney (5*) added 16 for the last wicket, Moe all out for 133 in just 40 overs. Pilling took 5/21 (8), doing most of the damage in the collapse. Todd Mann bowled all but 2 overs from the Catterick End, taking 3/62.
Imperials chased down 1st innings points quite comfortably, surpassing Moe’s total 4 wickets down with Shuttleworth (42), Thilakarathne (39), Pilling (24), Blake (20) & Morley (18) all getting starts. Cake, Zomer, Grant all have 1 wicket with a run out making up the 4 dismissals before Imps took 1st innings points. Andrew Philip (3/27) took 3 late wickets to have the hosts 7 down at stumps, leading by 36 runs with 3 wickets in hand in their first innings. A big job for Moe next week if they are to reverse outright to take something from this match
Premier B Grade – Moe v Thorpdale
Moe batted first and staggered to 7/117 from their 45 overs. Co-Captains Ash Savige (18 off 57) & Michael Johnstone (16 off 35) top scored for Moe with extras (16), Farmer (12*) & Sheekey (11) the only other double figure scores. It was a sore day for the Lions with Atkinson (calf) & Aiden Savige (groin) retiring hurt. Farmer & Blunt (3*) batted out the overs to leave them in retired ‘not out’ status and not have to attempt to return to the crease. Justin Hecker took 3/14 & Robbie Kerrison 2/20 for the Blues.
Former Lion Kayne O’Connell (0) fell to Farmer in the first over, caught by Evan Sheekey keeping up to the stumps, as he did for most of the day to come. Aiden Savige’s first ball at the other end had Graeme (0) hole out to Semmens at point, score 2/2. The visitors recovered to 2/26 before a collapse of 4/4 had the Blues reeling at 6/30. Blunt with 3/4 from his first 3 overs and Johnstone getting a run out.
From there, Moe should’ve had the game won but cricket offers a lot of variables. Durkin (facing the majority of the deliveries) saw out Blunt’s overs (3/11 off 9), prioritising damage limitation over runs scored, before he & Kerrison started to eat into the total required following bowling changes. Durkin’s 36* took a more cautious approach with only a chance or two offered late once the target was in sight. Kerrison offered a looser hand on his way to an unbeaten 48*, with a few lives offered by dropped catches along the way. Moe were unable to take them and failed to swing momentum back in their favour. The pair did exactly what they needed to and took the points back to Thorpdale, leaving the Lions licking their wounds, losing from a very strong position.
Blunt & Farmer combined for 4/19 off 18 overs (5/19 including the run out during one of Farmer’s overs) in easily the pair’s best performances to date after indifferent starts to the campaign. The loss of Atkinson’s overs really hurt the hosts along with Boswell being a late out, who took 6 wickets last time B’s played a match. But with this sport, there’s no guarantee it would’ve made the difference although Johnstone & Savige would say it’d have been nice to have them available to try.
An 8 point result as what could’ve been a 2pt margin behind 4th turns into 10, making the last match before Christmas against CATS a highly crucial one in shaping whether the season will be playing for finals or to avoid relegation.
Premier C Grade – T20 Double Header
C Grade entered the Christmas break with T20 action. 4 teams converged on Joe Tabuteau Reserve with Rawson & Moe each playing Morwell & Mirboo North, Moe on the turf & Rawson on the synthetic.
Racecourse 1, Game 1: Moe’s first match was against Mirboo North. Moe only lost 3 wickets on the way to 103 from 20 overs at just over 5 an over. Shannon Murphy (30) top scored before being ran out and Braden Finn (14) also got a start before dismissal. Paul Cake (23*) & David Biggins (14*) put on an unbeaten 34 run stand before innings close. Burke, one of 4 Vanderzalm’s in the Tigers line up took 1 wicket, as did Dave Calder.
Gene Vanderzalm (40*) was Mirboo North’s main resistance with the bat. Entering at 2/18, which became 5/25. Corbin (14) put on 31 with Gene before wickets quickly fell again, losing 4/13 again to be 9/69. Hutton (9*) & Gene added an unbeaten 20 as Mirboo closed on 9/89 from their 20, Moe prevailing by 14 runs. Paul Cake took 4/14 off 4 overs, with Frank Manduci 2/21 (4) & Craig Veenman 1/20 (4) also claiming scalps.
Racecourse 2 – Game 1 – Rawson 1/87 (16.3) easily accounted for Morwell 9/80
Racecourse 1 – Game 2 – Morwell batted first, with Wynne (14) & Cook (21) putting on 33 for the first wicket, which built to 2/60 but had used up most of their innings allotment. A loss of 5/8 in the closing stages at Morwell closing with just 68 runs on the board (for 7 wickets) from the full 20 overs. Craig Veenman took 3/13 (3) including wicket #300 for Moe (Congratulations Veeno!). Paul Cake took 2/11 off 4 and Frank Manduci 1/6 (2). Tyler Duff (1/2) was the only addition for Moe to the wicket column in game 2.
Finn & Biggins fell for ducks, with Murphy (14) getting another start. Paul Cake (20*) batted the innings through with Craig Veenman (27*) as Moe chased down the total easily with 5 overs to spare. Carstein took 2/9 (4) for Morwell
Racecourse 2 – Game 2 – Rawson 10/52 (16.3) lost to Mirboo North 10/56 (20) in a thriller. Another Mirboo low total suggested another loss was impending, given Rawson’s comfortable chase earlier but the Kookaburra’s collapsed dramatically to 9/29. Wilkie (12*) & Young (8) added 23 for the last wicket to get Rawson within 5 runs of victory with plenty of time left but Young was caught for Mirboo to prevail.
Paul Cake had a standout day with 6/25 (8) & 43* unbeaten across both matches for Moe. Darren Wilkie had a similarly strong day with 6/11 off 8 across both T20’s for Rawson on Oval #2
Moe enter the Christmas break just outside the Top 4 in Prem C.
