Under 14 Friday Premiership 2021/22

**U14 Friday (Division 5) Premiership 2021/22

After finishing the home and away season on top of the ladder, Moonee Valley’s U14 team secured the 2021/22 premiership with a convincing win over Pascoe Vale Hadfield on Friday, 11 March.
Having won the toss, PVH elected to bat but was in immediate trouble when Hayagreev Bashyam struck with his first ball, coming on in the second over.Captain Zac Nilsson effected a direct-hit runout fielding at first slip, and followed up with a sharp slips catch off co-captain Jordy Walsh’s bowling in the next over to have them 3/4 midway through the third.
At right: Before the match: L-R: Back - Mark Lubansky, Diego Surace, Max Talone, Jordy Walsh, Harper Eason, Hayagreev Bashyam, Antonio Baldino. Front - Dante Mazzarella, Katherine Baker, Zac Nilsson, Jeremy Sevenson, Eden Del Citto, Rushil Gundubilli, Lucas Tipper.
Runouts were a feature of our fielding innings, with sharp efforts from Jeremy Sevenson and Rushil Gundubilli adding to Zac’s runout to ensure that their middle order were never able to get going.
Two catches by Max Talone helped Zac Nilsson to figures of 2/20 from 4 overs, and a thinly-disguised but deadly accurate slower ball from Hayagreev Bashyam dismissed PVH’s highest scorer in the 15th over. Tight bowling in the final overs from Katherine Baker, Harper Eason, Zac Nilsson and Max Talone kept them to a modest total of 9/89 from their 20.
Promoted up the batting order, Eden Del Citto got Moonee Valley off to a flyer with some lovely cover drives and cut shots, finding the boundary regularly in the opening overs. When fellow opener Hayagreev got in on the boundary action from the fifth over onwards, the scoring rate ticked up markedly and put us on the path towards victory.
By the time Eden fell for 17 off 20, we were already a third of the way to making the required runs. A 32-run second wicket partnership between Hayagreev and Zac Nilsson put the game virtually beyond doubt at the half-way mark. Some big hitting late in his innings saw Hayagreev retire not out 30 from only 24 balls, while Zac posted 16 from 19 before being caught in the deep.
Propping up what turned out to be a shaky middle order, Max Talone (23 not out from 21 balls) batted through a succession of partners to ice the match and bring the flag home to Moonee Valley with more than 3 overs to spare.

At left: With medals and flag: Our Under 14s did us proud: L-R: Back - Katherine Baker, Lucas Tipper, coach/team manager David Baker, Mark Lubansky, Jordy Walsh, Harper Eason, Diego Surace, Jeremy Sevenson, Antonio Baldino, Dante Mazzarella, training coach Jack Newman. Front - Eden Del Citto, Angus Hughes, Zac Nilsson, Max Talone, Hayagreev Bashyam, Rushil Gundubilli.
The end result was MVCC 6/104 def PVH 9/89. With 30 runs retired not-out from 24 balls and bowling figures of 4.0 overs, 2/12, Hayagreev Bashyam was the player of the match.