After intense rains during the early morning of Saturday, only a select few got to grace the field to play some cricket in the afternoon. Soggy outfields and slippery pitches left some with no option but to become spectators for the afternoon. For the crew at Mt Evelyn, it was just the First XI that would feature.
The Community Bank – Mt Evelyn First XI would engage in probably their most important match-up of the season. They would travel to Warranwood in a clash that will have huge ramifications on the relegation battle. With three teams going back to the Stuart Newey Plate at the end of the season, the fight is on. For the winner, they will also stay in touch with finals contention.
Both teams entered the clash with just one win on the board and were looking for a change in fortunes after cruelly falling short in the last matches. Warranwood captain Jake Gilbert would swiftly send Mt Evelyn into bat upon winning the toss, as conditions suggested there would be assistance through the air for the paceman. Perhaps Gilbert knew what he was capable of under the conditions, as he would be the main beneficiary of the decision to bowl.
The last time Mt Evelyn ventured to Quambee Reserve was for the Newey Plate Preliminary Final clash of the 2023/24 season. That day, the Mounters would lose a wicket on the first ball of the match, before being humbled when bowled out for a dismal 54. When Adam Smith fell on the second ball of the match, and Luke Jones and Alex Brisbane-Flynn followed soon after, all off the bowling of Gilbert, there were some nightmares being relived when the score was quickly reduced to 3/9 within the first half hour of play. With the inform pairing of Jake Blackwell and Daniel Giblin at the crease, there was still room for optimism under dark skies. The pair had all but done the first part of the salvage effort, almost navigating the team to drinks before Giblin would be caught in a gully, putting further strain on the visitors’ batting line-up as the score slipped to 4/21.
It was almost last-chance saloon for the Mounters as captain Campbell Mole joined Blackwell at the wicket. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the pair set about carefully injecting their team into the contest. Over the next hour, they would keep things simple; leave the ball well outside off stump, play within ‘the V’ and capitalise on anything loose should it come their way. When the bails were tipped for the tea adjournment, there would’ve been some air of confidence in the Mt Evelyn camp as a 53-run partnership between Mole and Blackwell had at least silenced the fielding team and given them some hold in the contest, even though there was still much to be done.
As it turned out, the tea interval came at the wrong time for the visitors, and the steely concentration deserted them. Blackwell would fall in the first over back after the break to a wild shot to spinner Rob Sayers, and when Mole fell less than two overs later to the same bowler, the score had slipped to 7/75. To make matters worse, Mawson would give Gilbert his fifth wicket the next over, and what looked promising just a handful of overs earlier soon looked cataclysmic. Four wickets lost in the space of 18 balls with just one solitary run added to the score. Disaster would explain the least of the situation.
Determined not to see their team swept away in humiliating circumstances, the tail trio of Cal Dooley, Caleb Hrabe and Bohdie Jones were left with the task of adding any morsel of score to the board, absorbing some time at the crease before trying to rescue the game with the ball. The trio would battle manfully over the space of the next 20 overs and would get the score beyond three figures, and into a position where a score of 150 was attainable. Unfortunately, the innings would close in fitting fashion as Jones would fall to a calamitous run out to close out the innings for 125. Nowhere near enough, but with wickets before the close of play, perhaps they could put some wobbles in a Shark’s batting line-up that has struggled so far this season.
It wasn’t to be. Despite some tidy bowling from recruit Malinga De Silva in his debut match for Mt Evelyn, the Mounters needed some strike power at the other end, and the pacemen couldn’t deliver with the ball, what they could with the bat. The Warranwood openers would reach safety without any concerns to see out the day at 0/36. Barring a miracle turnaround, the First XI have some serious work to do to turn this season around.
