Barooga - away for our pre-season hitout

Barooga - away for our pre-season hit out

                 
Our Barooga pre-season team. L-R: Back - Ashen Fernando, Dejan Gilevski, Jaspreet Bhatti, Joshua Gorry (capt), Krish Kanchan and Indika Perera. Front - Aksha Perera, Luca Nimorakiotakis, Stephen Ward, Sunil Bhandari and Cameron McGregor.
Moonee Valley got some valuable pre-season turf practice with a game at Barooga on the September 20/21 weekend. Playing against Oak Park/St Francis on the Barooga No. 2 ground, we struggled to make much impact with the bat and then felt the impact of their big hitters.
We were all out for 85 in the 35th over of the 40-over innings, then saw Oak Park/St Francis compile 7/210.
Jaspreet Bhatti top scored for Moonee Valley with 20, while Luca Nimorakiotakis, Dejan Gilevski and Aksha Perera all made 11.
Pick of our bowlers was Sunil Bhandari with 3/20 from his eight overs, including three maidens.
The weekend was jointly organised by the Moonee Valley and Barooga cricket clubs. At the same time as our game on the Saturday, Barooga played Glenroy.
The Barooga Cricket Club then hosted dinner and drinks at its pavilion, leading to watching the AFL Prelim final between Brisbane and Collingwood.
In his speech after the games Barooga Cricket Club President Jason "Guru" Stephens acknowledged the long-standing link with Moonee Valley. We have entered a team in Barooga's Over 35s tournament every year since 2014 (bar the COVID lockdown) and twice won the competition. Guru even played two tournament games with us as a fill-in player.