After a week off due to rain the Marcellin OCCC 2nd XI traveled to Heathmont for a one-day game. We happily welcomed the return of Nick Burt and the debut of Chetan Joshi for a tough match against a fellow top four contender. Captain Daniel Coloe won the toss and elected to bat.
A slow and steady start had us 2 down at drinks but the score below 40 with Coloe and Julian Black struggling to get through the infield on a difficult batting pitch along with good tight bowling from Heathmont. After drinks debutant Joshi came to the crease and hit a quick fire 20 with a few lovely straight boundaries. This put Heathmont on the defensive and allowed Black to loosen the shoulders and along with Paul Dinneen, (including a six off the last ball) we finished strongly to post a respectable 145. Julian Black the standout with an unbeaten 68.
The Heathmont openers looked quite comfortable early with the scoreboard ticking along ahead of the required run rate. Michael Mirabella got the first wicket with the score at 46. Gibson, the other Heathmont opener was hitting boundaries regularly until Chetan was brought into the attack. In Chetan’s first over Gibson hit one straight back over his head for four. Next ball he played all around the slower ball and was clean bowled for 55. This led to a celebration that Will Hiser would have been proud of. Chetan then let us know that it was his first wicket in 3 years as Clifton Hill wouldn’t give him a bowl. Clifton Hill’s loss was our gain as Chetan went on to pick up 4 wickets for the match. Julian Black did a great job picking up a couple of wickets while also putting the hand brake on Heathmont’s scoring. Heathmont needed 20 off the last 4 overs with 2 wickets in hand when Paul and Dan Coloe combined for a great run out. Nick Watty then clean bowled the number 11 the next ball to give us the win.
A much better effort in the field this week compared to earlier in the season. We still managed to drop a couple of catches but we can work on that. The first two-day game of the year is at Boronia next week who are 6 points behind us and fifth on the ladder.
Match Report Written by Daniel Day