Premier A Grade – Moe v Cats 02/03
CATS needed to win to ensure safety or otherwise, although seemingly likely pre-round, rely on two of the three teams below them losing, to stay safe. (Day 1 scores elsewhere – Churchill have posted 156 against Morwell, Mirboo North defending 208 against Raiders (1/53) and Toongabbie will be chasing Glengarry’s big total of 8/276). Entering the week, Moe needed to either win – or not lose outright and hope Morwell didn’t win outright – to secure finals.
Moe Innings:
Josh Moore struck first for the visitors, dismissing Noah Kane (2) for his 5th single digit score of the campaign. His highest inning this season (30) had come against CATS in the one day game. 2x CATS Premiership player, Josh Keyhoe (40), along with Andrew Philip (32), added 62 for the second pairing before both were bowled by Callum Stewart – who has taken 7fa in each of the teams last two two-day meetings, the fateful Grand Final of 2021 & last season’s two-day game.
Zomer (5) was next to fall at 4/95. Riley Baldi (14) & Evan Sheekey (18) both got starts. Their wickets triggered a 6/32 collapse (Shields(0), Johnstone 2, Colgrave 1, Taylor 2) to see Moe all out for 148. Callum Grant was unbeaten on 18*. Stewart did the most damage with 4/45 from a whopping 31 overs. Ben Hagley cleaned up the tail on his way to 3/13 off 9.5 whilst Moore (1/20) & McGill (1/39) each got one.
CATS Innings:
With 23 overs to play, it’s stating the obvious to say that CATS wanted to make a large dent into the total, whilst the Lions needed wickets to get back on top. Aaron Johnstone provided early for the hosts, bowling H.Moore (2) with a slower ball before snicking off Harrup (1) to Keyhoe, and it was 2/5. Porigneaux (4) was trapped lbw to Taylor before Sheekey took a sharp catch (Cochrane 11) to give Johnstone his 3rd. The last wicket to fall was Gissara (2), bowled by Zomer.
J.Moore (13*) & McGill (6*) survived out the day, with CATS 5/46 at stumps, trailing by 102. Johnstone has 3/21 for Moe, and now sits top of A’s wickets for the season (19) with Grant (18) & Taylor (17) close behind. One week plus hopefully finals to go.
An average batting performance but a strong finish to the day with the ball has put Moe in a strong position. With scorecards elsewhere, you’d think finals should now be safe but cricket is a funny game. Moe will be focused on just getting the 5 wickets to safely secure 1st innings and finals themselves.
