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3s win through to Grand Final
Posted by: Paul Scully, 08 March, 2010 in General News
On a weekend of strange weather and some stranger cricket, the MOCCC 3rd XI has claimed a berth in the A2 Synthetic grand final, winning a tight contest against Burwood Uniting Canterbury.
Unfortunately the rain was the enemy of our 1s (4th, A Turf) and 2s (3rd, B Turf) who were unable to have enough time on the field to fashion real contests. Frustrated and disappointed, the 1s were unable to even bowl an over to defend their competitive total of 172 and Ash Shaw's superb ton after the umpires decided that the ground was not suitable for any play at all on Monday. The 2s lost a day and a half before being set a ridiculous target of 200+ from 22 overs and falling on their swords in a kamikaze run chase.
So the 3s are the last senior team left standing. Winning the toss and batting first on Saturday, they were off to a great start on the back of Ash Murnane's quickfire 58. Three quick wickets came before Captain Dobeli and Dimi put together an assured, unbroken partnership of 70 before the Melbourne March Cyclone hit and put a full stop on the Saturday cricket with Mazenod well placed at 3/145 after 39 overs.
Resuming on Monday, Dobsy and Dimi were able to carry the total to 184 before "Rancho Calapso" took centre stage, with the loss of 7/14 in a crazy half hour. Ash's 58, 63 from the skipper and a valuable 43 from Dimi were the scorecard standouts amongst five ducks.
Setting Burwood Uniting Canterbury 199 to win from 56 overs, we had a match on our hands.
Early wickets to Scott Bell and junior fast bowler, Ruvi De Silva had Burwood 3/22 at tea, with Mazenod holding sway. At 4/44 soon after tea, things looked even better before a BUCCC partnership of 100 in quick time swung the game back towards them.
The crucial breakthrough came with a Bryan 'Bristle' Hancock catch in the deep before Ruvi took the game for himself, cleaning up the BUCCC batsmen and finishing with the superb semi-final figures of 7/50 from 15.2 overs.
A great fighting effort from the 3s in the field, with some ripping catches from Ash, KP and Dimi backing up some excellent bowling - Ruvi and Scott Bell in particular.
A second grand final berth in three years for the 3rds, and a great clash with North Balwyn looming. They join the 16Cs as the two Nodders Grand Final sides looking for your support next week.
The grand final against North Balwyn is scheduled for two days (13 & 20 Mar) at Ramsden Road Reserve, Clifton Hill with play commencing at 12.30pm. Check back later in the week for further details.
