We arrived at Brighton Beach on an overcast morning and a green top.
After winning our first 2 matches under the 20/20 format, we returned to the 40 over format v Old Caulfield.
Winning the toss we elected to bat. Given the visitors had 5 at the start of play, the steady Campbell (6) opened up with the explosive Bone (34) for an opening partnership of 41 before the loss of Campbell in the 7th over, quickly followed by Bone in the 8th to a very ‘bad’ call of caught behind. Fraser (36) and Lavender (75) put on 82 for the 3rd wicket, Guyestky entered with a power-hitting 29, 4/183 in the 32nd over, before a number of cameos lead by Joey 16no, took the score to 8/220 in 40 overs.
After tea, and on a slowing pitch, Niblett took the new ball (2/28 off 8) and had the openers caught in two minds, to play or not to play. Park (1/32 off 8) took the other end, and was unlucky. 3/59 after 11 overs and with Lavender (5/30), Melzter (0/17 off 4), Dimopoulos (0/25 off 6) and Wood (0/35 off 5) all bowled tight in the middle stages, but a few dropped catches allowed Caulfield to build a 93 run partnership for the 4th wicket, before Fraser and Park came back to slow the innings, followed by a fired-up Niblett who broke the partnership by bowling out Manam, 4/163. In the 35th over, Lavender came on and closed out the innings with a further 5 wickets in the last 5 overs, including Bhumul for 79 – all out for 185.
A great win, leaves the team 3 straight wins.
We play the return game against Caulfield this Sunday aiming for 4 in a row.
Sam