The Planning Partners second XI following our premiership in C grade last year we were promoted to B grade to start the 20/21 season. We opened up with a home game against North Balwyn @ Schramms reserve. (Due to COVID we couldn’t access the school and the committee did a great job securing a temporary home at Schramms). We lost the toss and NB batted first. We bowled well for 35overs but NB hit 60 off theist 5 to reach 200. In reply we lost early wickets and were never really in the hunt. Best performer was J Black with a solid 40 odd.
Round 2
Still under COVID restrictions we played a home game against Balwyn Saints @ Myrtle park (Balwyn home ground). We lost the toss again and were sent in to bat. With heavy cloud around potentially delaying the game we started as scheduled and batted pretty well putting on 6-166 off the 40 overs with Kaz, Rammers and Blacky all chipping with 39, 42 and 35 respectively. In reply Balwyn Saints reached 6-136 off 28.4. Balwyn started hot but we reigning them in before rain and lightning ended play. Pick of the bowlers were Hyder Khan (2-43 off 7) and C Joshi (3-13 off 6). Overall we went home with 3 points and were on the board for season 20/21.
Round 3
Saw us take the long trip to Zerbes reserve to play East Doncaster. Again we lost the toss and were sent in to bat on a reasonable wicket. At 2-0 it was not a great start but scores of 40, 24 and 30 from Mo Sethia, Dan Coloe and Chetan pushed us to a defendable score of 9-153 off our 40 overs. In reply East Doncaster had a slow and steady start. Excellent bowling from Hyder Khan (2-22 off 7), Meet Fifandra (2-13 off 8), P French (1-19 off 6) and D Zachariah (1-28 off 8) applied great pressure to the East Donny batters. The game went right down to the wire with ED requiring 4 runs to win off the last over with one wicket in hand. Standing at the top of the bowlers mark was P French who delivered a ripping delivery first up which cleaned up off stump and the eagles were celebrating! Notable mention was to Hyder Khan who took a fantastic one handed catch at extra cover in the middle overs to keep the eagles in the game.
Round 4
We travelled to Canterbury sports ground the graveyard for massas shoulders in the past. With wild weather forecast we lost the toss and bowled. The pitch was interesting to say the least, some quality ‘tennis ball bounce’ and divots reflecting a decent pitching wedge on the 18th was the most positive description we could give this pitch. Canterbury got away early but we pegged them back with some solid bowling restricting then to 138 all out. Wickets were shared with Meet Fifandra and Chetan taking two wickets each. We started off hot batting with massa cracking a quick fire 41 however a steady loss of wickets brought our downfall as we failed to chase down the total being bowled out for 117 in the 29th over.
Round 5
Deepdene made the trip down Bulleen road to Marcellin. It was great to be back at Marcellin after home games at Schramms and a few road trips. We lost the toss again and bowled. Very solid bowling effort as the Eagles restricted to Deepdene to 109 all out. Wickets were shared with Chetan Joshi (3-20 off 7) and Peter French (2-22 off 8) were the pick of the bowlers. In reply to Deepdenes total we lost early wickets and were struggling at 3-20. Then Ankur Mathur and Sam Mackie came together and steered the ship home. Ankur top scoring with 55 was a match winning knock.
Round 6
Another home game, this time against Ashwood. We won our first toss of the year and chose to bat first on a traditional Lyons oval wicket. Our best start for a while saw us reach 1- 70 with Kaz and Mo adding 65 runs for the second wicket. we then lost a few quick wickets and slumped to 5-96. A few cameos form Ankur (16), Meet (10), Mackie (12) and Chetan (23) got us to a solid score of 8-148. In reply Ashwood never really got going and were bowled out for 127. Our bowlers were fantastic (again!) with Meet Fifandra (1-17 off 8), French (2-12 off 6), Sewelly (0-11 off 4) and Chetan (4-30 off 8) the pick of the bowlers. A great win to go into the Xmas break!
Round 7
First game after the Xmas break saw Marcellin host league leaders East-Malvern Tooronga. On a hot summers day, East malvern won the toss and batted. They started hot putting on 100 in 20 overs until we unleashed our three prong spin attack of Michael McColl, Chetan Josh and Mo Sethia. The high quality spin bowling reigned in the batsman keeping EM-T to 9-181. Mo Sethia was the pick of the bowlers finishing with 5-23 off 8! In reply Marcellin were a little behind the run rate at 3-62 after 20 overs. Some solid batting in the middle to late overs by Ankur Mathur (31), Michael McColl (40) and Meet Fifandra (14) saw us fall just short of the total, finishing with 7-163 off 40 overs.
At this halfway point in the season we sit in 4th spot with 3 wins, 3 losses and one draw. The squad is coming together nicely with good contributions across both batting and bowling. With some good quality cricket moving forward we can make a push for finals.