After a heart stopping win against Hawthorn, the Marcellin 2nd XI had made it to the big dance against old foe Mazenod OC. The boys arrived to the ground excited and ready to go for its defence of the C-Turf premiership. Despite being defending champions we walked into the game as underdogs as we were facing Mazenods 1stXI with gun English imports and the fact they had comfortably beaten us twice this year (Our only 2 losses for the year).
An excited morning saw Captain Adam Massarotti win the toss and electing to bat on what was a lovely sunny day perfect conditions for batting. The outfield was quick enough and the pitch looked a belter for batting.
A quick start was made with Paul Dinneen and Adam Massarotti firing off to 0/15 off the first 2 overs. Massa was the first to go playing a hook shot that should have been left and was caught and bowled for 15. Leaving the eagles 1/17 off 3 overs. Daniel Coloe made his way to the crease but was unfortunately given out LBW and after 6 overs the eagles were in danger at 2/26. James Kazalac and Paul Dinneen did well occupying the crease looking to build a partnership. Unfortunately James was bowled and the eagles were 3/44 off 16.2 overs as the theme of the day continued we just couldn’t build long partnerships.
Daniel Fallshaw came to the crease and put on 26 runs with Paul before he fell for 19 and the score was now 4/70 off 26.4 overs. When Paul fell 2 overs later caught at mid-on for a well-made 30 off 87 Balls, we were 5/73 off 28.4 overs and in a bit of trouble. Ankur Mathur and Michael McColl were at the crease, Mazenod were building the pressure with fantastic bowling and when Michael fell LBW we were 6/83 off 38.3 overs. Our strongest partnership for the day was between Ankur and Chetan who both valued their wicket while trying to score and lessen the pressure. When Chetan fell we were 7/115 off 53.2 overs. The last 3 wickets fell within 10 overs and we were all out for 134 off 62.6 overs. A credit to Mazenod who bowled exceptional all day and continued to build pressure with superb line and length bowling. Ankur Mathur was amazing for the eagles with bat making 33 off 90 deliveries and top scoring for the eagles in both the Semi Final and Grand Final, he is an exceptional talent and was a stand out in both finals.
Mazenod had to face 17 overs to finish the day and our aim was to make it a hostile environment. Unfortunately in the first 10 overs the Mazenod openers easily accounted for time and we couldn’t get the breakthrough we needed. Michael McColl came on to bowl and struck removing Don Paul LBW leaving Mazenod 1/30 off 13.1 overs. On the last over of the day Chetan Joshi struck with a catch to short leg only for the main umpire to give it not out which summed up our day. Day 1 ended with Mazenod 1/35 off 17 requiring 99 off 80 overs with 9 wickets in hand to win.
Despite a poor day from the batters we still believed we were in the game. Upon Arriving Day 2 the team was upbeat knowing we had to give everything we had. Ben McCarthy’s opening spell was superb building pressure and achieving multiple play and missies. This allowed Michael McColl to pounce with some brilliant leg spin bowling. Our poor fielding resulted in Michael having 2 drop catches which resulted in relieving pressure and allowing Mazenod to get to 1/52 off 26 overs for.
Bens hard work was rewarded with a caught behind of the opener and Mazenod were 2/52 off 26 overs and Marcellin were up and about. 4 overs late Ankur Mathur struck removing the nightwatchmen and Mazenod were 3/70 off 31 overs.
Unfortunately that’s where it ended for us as the Captain of Mazenod made 51 not out and Mazenod had reached our score of 3/136 off 53 overs. Our bowlers were excellent in building pressure and tight bowling however our low total just wasn’t enough to get us the victory.
