F I R S T X I
OLD SCOTCH 1XI 169 (37.2)
def. MACCABI AJAX 94 (32.4)
H. Gray 50*, S. Goodwill 31 & 4/18, C. Loveridge 5/24
Cricket is back!! On Sunday we headed to Albert Park to take on Maccabi Ajax for our opening game of the season. A new season brings fresh excitement and this year that comes with Joel Bennett returning to cricket, Sam “Stickers” Goodwill joining the club, Hamish Francis back from his European sojourn and Henry Gray coming back to play with us. With Maccabi being a promoted up last season, we weren’t sure what exactly to expect and with the oval looking like hadn’t been mown for a couple years, we knew it wasn’t going to be an easy day.
With the Toss won, Hamma and Dawbs wandered out to start our season off. In typical fashion, we got off to a hot start with both openers looking confident out there. This was before Dawbs fell and this brought upon a mini collapse which led us to be 4-50. To Maccabi’s credit, they bowled well and were managing to extract some movement off the surface leading to some unplayable deliveries to Sam and Hamma. Even at 4-50 we continue to play our brand of cricket with Henry Gray coming to the crease and being aggressive from ball 1. Henry batted beautifully on a tough surface and really controlled the rest of our innings ending on 50*. New clubman, Stickers, joined in with Henry as they put on a crucial 50 run partnership which allowed us to limp to 169. With a tough batting wicket and a thick outfield, we were confident that this was a defendable score but knew we would have to bowl well.
Lachie Francis and Joel Bennett took the new ball for us and started off strong. Both bowlers were patient and disciplined in their line and length and although they didn’t come away with any wickets, they built pressure and momentum for us ass the required rate slowly started creeping up. After a brief spell from Clark and Shearer we were finally able to pick up a wicket with the score at 1-52 thanks to a one handed screamer from Clark at short midwicket. Just before drinks we threw the ball to our spinners and what followed that was something incredible. With Maccabi at 1-63 at drinks, the game was well and truely in the balance, that was until we SPUN AND WON. Charlie Loveridge (5-24) and Sam Goodwill (4-18) teamed up and bowled beautifully, they kept the batsmen thinking and didn’t let up. The pair teamed up to bowl Maccabi out for 94! In the space of 15 overs and about 45mins, the game went from in the balance to over.
In terms of Round 1 games, it certainly wasn’t perfect, with our batsmen looking rusty and our fielding not at its cleanest. However, it was an extremely professional win, we made a point of not trying to force anything in the bowling innings and allowing the game to come to us. Our bowlers were excellent and the build up of momentum and pressure led to the dam walls finally broke and Sam and Charlie reaped the rewards. A great win but plenty to learn from before next week.
— Will Clark (1XI Captain)
S E C O N D X I
OLD SCOTCH 2XI 124 (34.2)
def. by EMTCC 1/126 (17.1)
T. Loveridge 43, C. Schilling 22, C. Hocking 1/60
The season got off to an extremely lacklustre start with a bonus point loss at the hands of East Malvern Tooronga. The final result being a 9 wicket loss, after EMTCC chased our 124 in under 20 overs, with one batsman bringing up his 100 inside 65 balls.
The highlights for the day for our team were the innings of Tom Loveridge 43, Charlie Schilling 22 and Mark Griffiths 19 who combined for 84 of our 124 runs. Unfortunately with the bat there were far too little contributors, with the 3 above, especially Tom showing the blue print of grinding out a decent score.
We will need to bounce back immediately to get our season back on track.
— John Stavris (2XI Captain)
T H I R D X I
OLD SCOTCH 3XI
vs. SOUTH CAULFIELD
FIXTURE DELAYED UNTIL DECEMBER 21
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