Jonty's Jottings - December 13-15

In the juniors, we unfortunately came up empty handed, but all teams were competitive and wins are surely just around the corner.

Here's the results from the past few days:

1st Grade - Two-Dayer - Moonee Valley 3/96 v Gellibrand 153. The 1s are in a very good position against the ladder leaders. A terrific team bowling performance led by Bede Gannon (3/27) before Dan Comande (3/13) cleaned up the tail. Three early wickets fell in the chase before Nadeera Thuppahi (39no) and Anthony Cafari (26no) steadied the ship. They'll hope to kick us home on Saturday. Ladder Position: 3rd

1st Grade NWMCA T20 - Moonee Valley 4/158 lost to Haig Fawkner 2/159 by eight wickets with 35 balls to spare. We were never really in this one after losing four early wickets. A great fighting effort from Jack Newman, who fought hard early before taking off to finish on 78no, with support from Suraj Weerasinghe (35no) in a 113-run partnership. That gave us something to bowl at, but the much higher-ranked Haig got a flyer and never looked back. Unfortunately this means our Twenty20 involved for season 2019-20 has come to an end, with both the turf and synthetic teams missing out on the next round by one ladder position. Ladder Position: 9th

2nd Grade - Two-Dayer - Moonee Valley 156 v Gellibrand 3/114. A mirror image of the 1s. We crashed to 3/0 in the second over, and it was always going to be tough from there. Alec McIntyre (41), Jim Polonidis (41no), Luke Brock (37) and Abishek Mehta (28) fought hard to set a target, but a great fightback will be needed with only 42 runs left to play with. Josh Norsetter made 4 and has 0/24 with the ball. Ladder Position: 5th

3rd Grade - 45 overs - Moonee Valley 71 lost to La Trobe CBD 197 by 126 runs. Not a bad display with the ball and in the field, but still room for improvement. Mitch McPherson (4/24) led the way while the spinners bowled better than their figures suggested. The less said about the batting effort, the better. Ladder Position: 3rd

4th Grade - 45 overs - Moonee Valley 5/207 def Monash University 8/201 by five wickets with 52 balls to spare. What A Win! Two points clear on the bottom of the ladder, up against the team a game clear on top, and we were always in control. Hopefully we can field a similar standard of team after Christmas and can build on that. Jay Patel (3/30) continues to be a great mid-season recruit, and he had plenty of support. Then he exploded once again with the bat to make 79no after Dean Lawson (39) and Heath Webb-Johnson (35) gave us a great start with an 80-run opening partnership. Off the bottom again, and onwards and upwards. Ladder Position: 7th

5th Grade - 35 overs - Moonee Valley 1/111 def Craigieburn 8/107 by 9 wickets with 162 balls to spare. In a word, brutal. After all the bowlers contributed to restricting the bottom team to a tiny score on our small and fast ground, the opening batsmen launched a blitz that knocked off the target in just eight overs. Sam Kater (57) brought up a half-century off just 14 balls (ridiculous!) and Jarrad Sims made 51no almost as quickly. Ladder Position: 2nd

6th Grade - 35 overs - Moonee Valley lost to Burnside Springs on forfeit. Unfortunately we were not able to find 33 players available to play a two-day game so close to Christmas, so the 6s had to pay the price and take an early break. Ladder Position: 6th

7th Grade - 35 overs - Moonee Valley 76 lost to Genesis 2/78 by eight wickets with 171 balls to spare. Plenty of juniors got a run in this game, but unfortunately the quality of the opposition proved far too much for us to handle. The big highlights of the day were Nicholas Botheras and Noah Nimorakiotakis making their senior debuts. Nicholas was smart enough to read what the batsman was doing and hit him in the head when he tried to get clever and ramp him - and then got him to edge one behind to Felix Fischer next ball for his first senior wicket. Brilliant Nicholas! Stick to it and there will be many more to come. Noah to have a hit and made 1 for his first run in senior cricket against a 1st/2nd Grade bowling attack. Well done Noah! Luca Nimorakiotakis (5 and 1 catch) and Felix (0 and 1 catch) also contributed.  Ladder Position: 8th