It was a good weekend for Melbourne Uni Cricket Club. The club is a good chance to win 3 of the 4 premier grades next Saturday when play resumes against Hawthorn Monash Uni. On Sunday MUCC had 3 teams win their 20/20 fixtures against Prahran. The MCA XI result is best left unmentioned as they were comprehensively defeated outright by Sacred Heart. In the VWCA the XI went down in a closely fought match against Coburg.
No doubt the highlight of the weekend was Antony Keely’s maiden premier cricket century. In his 53rd 1st XI game Keely made a brilliant 124 which was also his first century in any grade for MUCC. On Sunday he continued his rich vein of form making an unbeaten 70 leading MUCC to victory over Prahran in the 20/20 fixture. The other personal highlight was 4th XI skipper Mark Bhattacharyya returning the extraordinary figures of 5 for 20 off 20 overs.
First XI captain Paul Percy won the toss at the Uni Main and elected to bat in excellent conditions. After a reasonable start wickets started to fall at regular intervals. The departure of Nick Williams left MUCC teetering at 5 for 110. Tim O’Brien came to join Keely at the crease. The pair then combined to produce the highest partnership (147) for the MUCC 1s this season. Keely played a sensational innings to show he belongs as a premier cricketer. His innings included 13 4’s. O’Brien was not to be outdone and survived to stumps with his MUCC best of 83. Nick Ellsmore then cashed in to thump an unbeaten 54 off 42 balls (5 4’s and a 6) to take the score to 6 for 332 at stumps. It was a sensational fight back with Keely’s innings undoubtedly the highlight. The MUCC bowlers will be hoping to take the 10 wickets next week to secure the points next Saturday.
In the much hyped intellectual grudge match, the Second XI had a disappointing day at Monash University. After winning the toss and batting, we moved to 0/53 at the 1st drinks break. After that, the steady line and length of Hawthorn’s attack meant Melbourne Uni struggled to be all out for 168. The only highlight was a 50 partnership between Chris Grant (48) and Tim Robertson (28) through the middle session. Hawthorn Monash Uni then batted for 27 overs in the final session and finished at 1/69. Some disciplined line and length bowling and great fielding will be required on Saturday for the 2nd XI to come away with the points.
At the Crawford the MUCC 3s were inserted by HMU on an aging wicket. Captain Pat Halpin and fellow opener Jude Fernando made an excellent start scoring at almost a run a ball. Disappointingly both fell with the score on 37 and Shiv Bardolia also went leaving MUCC 3 for 37. Ball then dominated bat as HMU produced a fantastic spell of 3rd XI bowling to leave MUCC floundering at 7 for 76. The last of the recognised batsmen Sean Kirby was looking for support and he found an ally in Tom Williams. The pair dug in and added 78 for the 8th wicket. Kirby played a lovely innings and scored a personal best at the level of 58. Williams combined some non text book shots with some lusty blows including an exquisite straight 6. Once the partnership was broken the innings was wrapped up relatively quickly for a defendable 167.
With 17 overs to bowl wickets were obviously the aim. Steve Flight bowled his best spell for the club to collect 2 wickets while Andy Thomas got one. This left HMU at 3 for 36 at stumps and the match evenly poised. If early wickets can be taken next week MUCC will be hopeful of securing the 6 points.
Captain Bhattacharyya’s five wicket haul has put the 4s in a strong position going into the second week of round 9. The Hawks’ top order provided some resistance being 4 for 94 at tea, but were scuttled when play resumed with swing bowler Josh van Cuylenburg (2 for 39, from 19 overs) beginning the onslaught and Bhattacharyya (5 for 20, from 20 overs) concluding it. Having dismissed the Hawks for 149 in 80.4 overs the MUCC openers, Kiely and Sarve, will resume at 0 for 10 next week after facing 8 non-threatening overs.
Hawthorn-Monash University’s tactics bordered on the ridiculous at times, save for their number four batsmen Justin Creed who scored 67 in his first innings of the season, with four Hawks perishing to lbw decisions largely due to their lack of intent at the crease. The Hawk’s meek approach to batting saw a verbal tornado of commentary from in-fielders and Bhattacharyya at the top of his bowling mark.
In the 20/20 fixtures on Sunday MUCC were good enough to win 3 out of 4. The 1st XI chased down Prahran’s 6 for 159 with 1 ball to spare. Keely rounded out his fine weekend with his 70 not out and O’Brien continued his form with 43 not out.
The 2s were comfortably beaten at the Uni Main. Nick Hutton was the major contributor with the bat scoring 36 out of 110. Prahran comfortably overhauled this total only one down in the 17th over.
The curtain raiser at the Toorak Park saw the 3s make it 2 from 2 in 20/20 matches. Batting first Ahilan Sivakumaran was the stand out making 44 in a total of 6 for 143. Prahran got off to a flyer in reply but some tight middle overs from MUCC made it a contest. The bowling continued to be good and the fielding excellent. In the end Prahran were restricted to 9 for 133 from their 20 overs. Paceman Lachie Richards ended with 3 for 28 from his 4 overs.
The 4s had a comfortable win at the Uni Main. Batting first MUCC made 6 for 129 with Jarryd Crisp making 34 and Dan Hanrahan 38. A great bowling performance saw Prahran bowled out in the last over for 105.
These were the final 20/20 fixtures for the season. Unluckily the 1st XI missed the semi finals on Net Run Rate to finish 5th. The club did fantastically well to finish 2nd in the 20/20 Club Championship behind Geelong. Coach Brett Harrop should be well pleased at turning around our performances in 20/20s this season.
The VWCA XI narrowly lost to second placed Coburg on Sunday at McAlister Oval. After losing the toss Uni bowled and fielded well to restrict Coburg to 3/139 off 40 overs. Madeleine Mitchell was the pick of the bowlers coming away with 2/18 off 10. Khay Fong was impressive in her debut bowling performance taking 1/40 from 9. Uni set about reaching the target steadily. Although wickets fell at regular intervals, after each loss they managed to build a partnership. Needing five runs an over off the remaining eight proved to be too much on a low and slow wicket. The VWCA XI ended on 9/127 (Katie Derham 70), 12 runs short of Coburg’s total.
Next weekend, on Saturday, the VWCA XI play Essendon Maribyrnong Park at EMP in Round Two of the VWCA Twenty20 knockout competition and then are at home at McAlister Oval against Moonee Valley on Sunday.