Fourth Eleven Premiership 2020/21

Our first Mercantile flag

In a season unlike any other in our 50-year history due to the coronavirus pandemic, Moonee Valley Fourth Eleven seized the moments that counted to win our club’s first Mercantile Premiership.

We had three draws in a row leading up to Christmas – two of them we were in a winning position and the third was a total washout – and finished the season strongly to take third spot on the ladder.

The weather forecast in the week leading to the March 14 Semi Final was bleak and we had no confidence that Flemington Colts would show diligence in protecting their wicket, as they would go through as the higher side if the match was washed out.
At right: The winning team. L-R. Back - Manu Singh, Paul Bannister, Tom Morrissy, Sunny Singh, Andreas Skiotis, Sam Carbone, Mick Bannister, Sam Coventry-Poole. Front - Pavan Menugonda, Dom Rettino, Jay Patel, Prashant Hirani and Ben Skok.

So we took the precaution of having curator Ian “Spider” Beel prepare a wicket at Ormond Park “just in case”, and ensured that Mercantile knew a track would be ready if Holland Park didn’t get up.

Just as well. Flemington Colts only had a skeleton crew on hand and made no attempt to lift the covers early, while we had an active group at Ormond Park getting the pitch ready.

For some reason Flemington Colts were unaware that Mercantile had ticked off on a ground change if required. The umpires certainly knew. So when their pitch turned up saturated they were quite surly when they were marched off to a perfect deck at Ormond Park.

Spider had mowed and rolled it before they arrived, and it was hard and perfect.

It was almost as though Flemington Colts had psyched themselves up that they would be in the Grand Final without having to bowl a ball. They were never in the hunt, with their 8/141cc easily overhauled in the 26^th over only four wickets down, thanks to an unbeaten 82 run partnership between Sam Coventry-Poole and Prashant Hirani.

In a season unlike any other we decided to push our luck again, and offered to host our Grand Final even though Mercantile traditionally stages its big games at Fawkner Park. Surprisingly, in a season unlike any other they agreed.

The March weather problems continued. Our Ormond Park pitch was fine for the March 21 decider but the southern runups were saturated, so the match was postponed to the following week.

Following more rain the wicket was a bit spicy, and we learned from the Thirds’ Grand Final loss on the Saturday that fortune favored the brave.

So come Sunday, skipper Manu Singh agonized and sought second and third opinions before seizing the moment when he won the toss and electing to bat.

As we learned from the previous day, it was a hard deck to score runs.

We lost Pavan Menugonda with the score on six, the Sunny Singh and Tom Morrissy pushed on to 38 before Tom was given out to a dubious low catch.

We continued to scratch around for not much return, with the only bright spots being our semi final heroes again – Sam Coventry-Poole with 24 and Prashant Hirani with 27.

While Jay Patel, Sam Carbone, Mick Bannister, Ben Skok and Dom Rettino didn’t make too many runs, they absorbed balls and overs and inched the scoreboard forward. We lost our last wicket with two balls to go in the 45^th and last over for 117 – which was the target which the Thirds had been unable to chase down the previous day.

That gave us some hope.

In this COVID-affected season there were no afternoon teas, so our players had to nervously scratch around for the innings break and chew on whatever food they had in their bags.

We opened the bowling with Paul Bannister and Prashant Hirani.

Melbourne City was very cautious, but in the fifth over their opening bat drove a ball to Jay Kumar and took off. He mustn’t have known that Jay is one of the best fielders at our club, as he pounced on the ball and threw a rocket throw to keeper Dom Rettino, and we had our first wicket.

Jay was involved in the second wicket, with a sharp catch to give Prashant Hirani a deserved wicket for some tight bowling – 1/6 off five overs at that stage.

Skipper Manu Singh rung the changes, and his change bowlers Jay Patel and Sunny Singh kept up the pressure.

Jay bowled wicket maidens in his second and third overs – the first clean bowled, and the second a good catch to Sunny. Score 4/32.

Jay bowled just four overs in his spell, and Pavan Menugonda came on from the northern end. The conditions suited PK, and he was bending the ball like a hoop through the air. No wonder he picked up an LBW with just his fourth ball.

Sunny kept plugging away, and a sharp catch from Paul Bannister was just reward as Melbourne City slumped to 6/55.

Any hopes Melbourne City may have had dissipated in the very next over, with a double wicket maiden from PK – the first to a superb one-handed leg-side catch down low by Dom Rettino, and the second knocking down the pegs.

It was 8/55 in the blink of an eye.

Andreas Skiotis had been part of the team for the whole season, but got squeezed out of the 12 when the selectors sat down to pick the Grand Final team. But he was named as a substitute, and got to run on to the field as skipper Manu Singh came off on a rotation.

Dre’s time on the field was short-lived, as Jay took a wicket next ball to leave them teetering on 9/58.

Supporters on the sideline impressed on Manu that he had to go back on and be in the field for the final wicket, so he swapped again with Dre.

Four overs later, off the fourth ball of the 31^st over, Jay Patel secured an edge from the Melbourne City captain’s bat, which was pouched safely by Dom Rettino. Our first Mercantile premiership! Click fourthsgf-scorecard2021.pdf for the scorecard. Click HERE for more photos.

The bowling was tight throughout, and Jay Patel with 4/14 and PK Menugonda with 3/7 were near unplayable in the conditions.

The umpires awarded Jay the Man of the Match medallion, and there wasn’t much argument that he deserved it.