1st XI: MUCC 201 all out (T Rogers 62, F Ahmed 42, F McKenna 41) defeated Carlton 192 all out (S Reid 3/34, AJ Gregory 3/45, WA Agar 2/42)
Full scorecard here
MUCC were sent in to bat on a hard Princes Park wicket and set off to a shaky start slumping to 4/22. Enter second gamer Fergus McKenna (41) and young gun Tom Rogers (62) steadying the ship with an outstanding 95 run partnership wrestling back control. Uni faltered slightly through the middle order losing regular wickets with the score 8/165 in the 35th over. Number ten batsmen Fawad Ahmed having recently returned from the Caribbean T20 league was hitting the fence and clearing the pickets on his way to a run a ball 42no. The late, late charge took MUCC to a respectable 201 at the change of innings.
Carlton openers Gulbis & Stepien were aggressive against the new ball, bringing up a 50 run opening stand in the 9th over, before Alex Gregory broke through taking Gulbis (33) in his first over. Steady middle overs saw the University bowlers slow the run rate, however the Blues looked comfortable at 4/169 when skipper James McNeil brought Steve Reid back into the attack. Reidy (3/34) tore through the middle order taking three crucial wickets in the first over of his second spell and turning the game on its head.
An inspired University pace attack then ran rampant, taking a remarkable 5/1 to have the Blues reeling at 9/171. Uni seamers Gregory (3/45) and Wes Agar (2/42) were outstanding in a dominant display of fast bowling. After some last wicket resistance, Uni snared the final wicket in the 48th over leaving Carlton 9 runs short to cap off a great victory for the Students.
2nd XI: MUCC 9/190(cc) (D Hutton 105) defeated Carlton 134 all out (JR Bett 3/38)
Full scorecard here
Video highlights here
Keen to be back at the Main for the first time this year, the 2nd XI took on Carlton on Saturday for the first match of a double-header weekend.
Having been warmly congratulated on winning the toss by a gracious Carlton skipper, Mark Simpson elected to bat on what appeared to be a batsman-friendly wicket.
Scoring was difficult early, and after losing three wickets all relatively cheaply, Uni were in trouble at 3/20, before Hutton and Rolfs were able to combine and steady things slightly with a 40-run partnership. Rolfs’ departure (20) however was soon followed by Noah Croes, (1) and the Students were in trouble at 5/67.
All the while, Hutton was tracking along nicely down the other end, and soon reached 50, as he and James Bett (26) combined for a crucial 82 run partnership. A period of sensible and controlled batting saw Uni wrestle back the momentum.
Moving into the last five overs, Hutton crisply stroked the ball through cover and came back for the second to reach his fourth hundred for the club. A composed and elegant innings, Hutton’s 105 was evidently invaluable in pushing the score up to a competitive 190, but also highlighted his discipline and commitment to a clear game plan, on a wicket where others found it hard to get going.
Moving out after lunch, the 2nd XI knew they would have to bowl and field well with a sub 200 score on the board, and with two wickets in the first three overs, it could not have started any better; Will Morrison executed a neat run out at forward square leg for the first, before Mark Stafford picked up his first wicket of the season with the first ball of the next over (extra credit to Squid for this one after getting a bug in his eye mid-delivery stride, check out the footage on MUCC TV, it’s hilarious.) The Students quickly had two more, thanks to a typical Rolfs direct hit run out from point and a nice caught and bowled by Van Der Merwe, and Carlton were reeling at 4/10
Although O’Shea (67) continued to score down one end for the Blues, wickets kept falling at the other, courtesy of good bowling and support in the field. James Bett bowled beautifully on his way to figures of 3/38, as Clements and Van Der Merwe also picked up wickets through the middle overs. Rolfs picked up another run out, as Carlton were bowled out for 134 in the 42nd over.
A dominant display after some early concern with the bat saw Uni walk away with another win and another bonus point, sitting top of the table after two rounds.
3rd XI: MUCC 6/230(cc) (M Hatzoglou 55, E Karageorgiou 44) defeated Carlton 155 all out (B Roughsedge 4/16, J Stevenson 3/33)
Full scorecard here
The 3rd XI’s first away game paired us against a traditionally strong Carlton. Openers James Horn and Ben Roughsedge fought through a difficult start at an impressive run rate but unfortunately lost their wickets just after the 1st bowling change. Keeping the momentum was Elias Karageorgiou and Max Hatzoglou who accelerated to 44 and 55 respectively. Both played incredibly well to set the stage for Dan Ingleton (34) and Tom Savill (28) who finished off the blues.
Carlton swung the momentum back early in their innings although the persistence of Jacob Stevenson’s bowling laid a platform for Ben Roughsedge to clean up taking a very economical 4-16. All 10 wickets were caught with James Horn taking an absolute screamer. Excellent day for Uni’s 3rd XI as we secured yet another bonus point returning to the top of the table.
4th XI: MUCC 9/167(cc) (H Bienvenu 30) defeated by Carlton 2/169
Full scorecard here
Round 2 against Carlton started off with a win with Rafael Epstein debuting as 4 XI captain winning the toss and having a bat.
Starting us off was Jordan Evans and Nick Ritchie with Evans off to a flyer hitting a quick 13. Charlie Eastoe picked up from where Evans left off showing his array of shots attempting to launch a free hit into orbit but missing the balk by a meter. Eastoe departed for a well made 27. Not long after that Ritchie attempted to do not much snicking off for 19. Hugo Bienvenu and Ralph Epstein altered the momentum scoring all around the ground when Epstein went for 18. Bienvenu held the fort through the middle overs ending with 30. From there the tail didn’t wag as so until Andrew James came out and hit 12 off 7 balls to close out the innings.
Starting off with the ball was Alex Ingleton after bowling extremely well in the previous week with the experienced Andrew James pushing into the breeze. AJ bowled 9 overs straight in a fantastic opening spell, extremely unlucky not to get a few more wickets with figures of 1/27. From there we missed our line and lengths and let down by our fielding allowed the Carlton CC batsman to get on top and score to all parts of the ground. Throughout the middle overs Sam Harle bowled very well catching the outside edge over slips multiple times with figures of 0/11 off 3. With 10 runs to get Neshant Rao claimed his first Premier Cricket wicket with figures of 1/5 off 2.
It was a good effort all day but unfortunately beaten by a very good side. Congratulations again to Rafael Epstein for debuting as captain in Premier Cricket.
Women’s XI: MUCC 7/59(cc) defeated by Craigeburn 4/60
Full scorecard here
Pending.
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