Heavy Rain forces game into reserve day
Mont Albert 115 v North Balwyn 1/40
North Balwyn have dominated Mont Albert on day one of the Dunstan Shield Grand Final at Mont Albert Reserve and are favoured to win the match next Saturdy on the reserve day. A win would see them claim back to back Dunstan flags. They need 75 runs with nine wickets in hand to overhaul Mont Albert's 115.
In what was expected to be a close contest between the two best teams in the competition, turned out to be one-sided and an anti-climax to all but the North Balwyn faithful. Who were out in force along with the Mont Albert supporters.
After winning the crucial toss and electing to bat on a good deck and in hot conditions, Mont Albert's squandered their golden opportunity with an aggressive batting strategy against some excellent team bowling.
Their openers made a steady start progressing to 0/22 before North Balwyn opening quick Luke Stacker (4/36) struck twice. Jack Woods picked out Xavier Bateman to hole out. James Guley was then caught at the wicket to leave Mont Albert at 2/25. At the Southern end, as he has done all season, left arm orthodox spinner Zain Latif (5/51) bowled with unerring control. Charlie Waite and Lucas Hutchison were both bowled by Latif. Jack Morley top edged a pull shot off Latif to hole out to Nitesh Patel in front of the pavilion and Charlie Bennett was bowled by Xavier Bateman.
At 6/71 it was going to take a monumental recovery for the hosts to get out of the hole they dug for themselves. It all rested on the shoulders of opener Lachlan Fraser (54 from 168) and Skipper Andrew Padbury to put together a partnership. Until then, opener Fraser had played a lone hand, making the most of an early life, he was relishing the pressure and looked comparatively unfazed by the game situation. However when he fell, caught and bowled to Luke Stacker in his second spell, only the most optimistic of Mont Albert supporters could see their side post something like 150 to make a game of it. Andrew Padbury (11 from 59) and #11 Ben Howes (13* from 19) nudged the total to 115 off 59 overs.
With almost 90 minutes of play left in the day, Mont Albert had only one option which was to blast out the strong North Balwyn batting line up. North Balwyn's openers Max Tomkinson (23*) and Louis Macciocca (13) took 17 runs off the first three overs and the day was going from bad to worse for the hosts. Emotions became very raw late in the day as the game was slipping away. Jack Morley (9 overs 0-5) and Ben Howes and Andrew Padbury did settle into their work, bowling good lines and lengths. Mont Albert made a breakthrough late in the day via a brilliant piece of fielding by Jack Woods at silly mid-off which saw Maciciocca run out mid-appeal for LBW. With North Balwyn 1/40 at stumps, Mont Albert are hanging on by the barest of threads. North Balwyn will be watching the weather forecast closely for the reserve day next week but the prospect of second day in March being completely washed out seems remote.
In what was expected to be a close contest between the two best teams in the competition, turned out to be one-sided and an anti-climax to all but the North Balwyn faithful. Who were out in force along with the Mont Albert supporters.
After winning the crucial toss and electing to bat on a good deck and in hot conditions, Mont Albert's squandered their golden opportunity with an aggressive batting strategy against some excellent team bowling.
Their openers made a steady start progressing to 0/22 before North Balwyn opening quick Luke Stacker (4/36) struck twice. Jack Woods picked out Xavier Bateman to hole out. James Guley was then caught at the wicket to leave Mont Albert at 2/25. At the Southern end, as he has done all season, left arm orthodox spinner Zain Latif (5/51) bowled with unerring control. Charlie Waite and Lucas Hutchison were both bowled by Latif. Jack Morley top edged a pull shot off Latif to hole out to Nitesh Patel in front of the pavilion and Charlie Bennett was bowled by Xavier Bateman.
At 6/71 it was going to take a monumental recovery for the hosts to get out of the hole they dug for themselves. It all rested on the shoulders of opener Lachlan Fraser (54 from 168) and Skipper Andrew Padbury to put together a partnership. Until then, opener Fraser had played a lone hand, making the most of an early life, he was relishing the pressure and looked comparatively unfazed by the game situation. However when he fell, caught and bowled to Luke Stacker in his second spell, only the most optimistic of Mont Albert supporters could see their side post something like 150 to make a game of it. Andrew Padbury (11 from 59) and #11 Ben Howes (13* from 19) nudged the total to 115 off 59 overs.
With almost 90 minutes of play left in the day, Mont Albert had only one option which was to blast out the strong North Balwyn batting line up. North Balwyn's openers Max Tomkinson (23*) and Louis Macciocca (13) took 17 runs off the first three overs and the day was going from bad to worse for the hosts. Emotions became very raw late in the day as the game was slipping away. Jack Morley (9 overs 0-5) and Ben Howes and Andrew Padbury did settle into their work, bowling good lines and lengths. Mont Albert made a breakthrough late in the day via a brilliant piece of fielding by Jack Woods at silly mid-off which saw Maciciocca run out mid-appeal for LBW. With North Balwyn 1/40 at stumps, Mont Albert are hanging on by the barest of threads. North Balwyn will be watching the weather forecast closely for the reserve day next week but the prospect of second day in March being completely washed out seems remote.
