mmg.com.au

Murray Valley Cricket Association may have lost the Melbourne Country Week final to Geelong, but the talented squad was impressive throughout the five day tournament. President Dave Hansen compiled this report of the week’s cricket.

DAY 1— MVCA v Bendigo

Our first match was against Bendigo at Coburg and on Monday morning of day 1 of our Country Week campaign, the day took a decided downturn when the coach carrying players to the ground, would not start.

Frantic calls were made to book a maxi taxi and through the benevolence of long time scorer, Artie Owen who ferried a group of players and equipment to the ground in time for the toss.

The balance of the team arrived 20 minutes before game time. In addition to this piece of ill fortune, Alex Osmond was at the motel in bed with a virus, which limited numbers.

The toss was affected and skipper Shaun Downie sent the opposition in to bat.

The decision worked out favourably as Imran Arif (1 wicket), Tom Glover (4 wickets) and Downie (3 wickets) all bowled well to bowl Bendigo out for 116 in 43 overs.

The Country Week rules allowed Murray Valley to bat for 50 overs plus the additional seven overs not used by Bendigo.

Chris Armstrong (10) and Luke Carter (21) put on 34 for the first wicket, however wickets then quickly fell with the Valley suddenly 4-34 after some excellent bowling from Bendigo’s experienced campaigners.

The game was changed when Stuart Thomson joined Justin Maley (15) where they put together an 80 run partnership. Thomson was particularly severe on Bendigo’s bowlers, taking 15 off one over and reaching 76 off just 68 balls.

The middle order then consolidated with Luke Quinn (40), Imran Arif (38) and Will Power (22 not out) all contributing to take the final tally to 9-229.

DAY 2 — MVCA v Mornington Peninsula

The game was to be played at the picturesque Junction Oval ground as another challenge presented itself against a team we had never defeated.

Although Alex Osmond had recovered from his 24-hour virus, it had now caught up with Chris Armstrong, who was laid up in bed.

Again winning the toss, Shaun Downie sent Mornington in to bat expecting to extract as much early movement from the wicket from his fast bowlers.

Ash Quinn (6 overs, 1-5) and Imran Arif (6 overs, 1-4) severely applied the brakes to Mornington’s batting efforts and at the 17th over drinks break, Mornington had been restricted to 3-25 with the Valley seemingly in full control at this early stage. Murray Valley opened its batting innings with Alex Osmond who had climbed off his “death bed” and Luke Carter (30) at the top of the order with a fine opening stand of 60. Carter was dismissed bringing Liam Gledhill (37) to the wicket and he and Osmond put together a fine stand of 118 together.

The Junction Oval’s pitch was favourably positioned closer to one side of the ground enabling Osmond to take full advantage of the shorter side hitting ten fours and six sixes in a fine innings of 125. Murray Valley had passed Mornington’s total of 154 with only one wicket down.

Downie (20) and Luke Quinn (19 not out) put the icing on the cake with Murray Valley reaching 4-254, a comprehensive victory over its previous nemesis.

DAY 3 — MVCA v Leongatha

Leongatha had won its way back into Provincial Grade with a premiership in Division 1 the previous season.

On this occasion, Downie lost the toss and Leongatha decided to bat at the Preston Cricket Ground. Ash Quinn took an early wicket, but it was our spin attack that proved difficult for Leongatha’s batsmen to handle.

Alex Osmond (3 for 24) and Chris Armstrong (4 for 25) restricted Leongatha to 150 on the huge Preston ground.

Armstrong (21) and Osmond (13) then opened the batting for the Valley with a stand of 28 before skipper Shaun Downie came to the crease.

Murray Valley appeared to be cruising at 3-120 when Downie was dismissed for a great knock of 69.

Again wickets fell with Murray Valley slumping to 9-138 after losing 6-18 in the middle order. We required 13 runs off the last 4 overs with Ash Quinn and Will Power at the crease.

These two batsmen took the score to 149 with 2 runs still required off the final over of the match and Leongatha requiring one wicket for victory.

It appeared percentage would play a part in determining the makeup of the final with Geelong, Murray Valley and Leongatha the likely protagonists — a position that would become clearer after Murray Valley and Geelong clashed the following day.

DAY 4 — MVCA v Geelong

This match was much anticipated after last year’s loss and was to be played at Caulfield Cricket Club.

Geelong won the toss and batted showing a strong batting line up with all their batsmen getting starts. They found gaps in the field and ran well between wickets to eke out a very competitive total of 7-184 after 50 overs. The Valley’s bowled well with Armstrong and Osmond capturing two wickets each.

Again our batting failed to deliver with Geelong setting tight fields and restricting our stroke making. The only batsmen to reach double figures were Downie (30), Armstrong (20) and Imran Arif (19 not out).

DAY 5, THE FINAL – MVCA v Geelong

This match was allocated to the Albert Ground in St Kilda — a beautiful ground where many Melbourne Premier finals are also played.

Geelong again won the toss and elected to bat.

Coach Mick Cleeland asked for more pressure to be applied than the previous day and it was delivered with Geelong on the back foot at suddenly 3-5 with Imran Arif bowling well for two early wickets.

Murray Valley’s openers Luke Carter and Chris Armstrong put on 38 for the first wicket before Carter fell to one of Geelong’s big guns, opening bowler Trent Wayerys.

Unfortunately he then dismissed Downie and Thomson for first ball LBW’s giving him a hatrick and setting Murray Valley with a huge task of recovering from this position.

Justin Maley (30) and Luke Quinn (15) tried hard, but Geelong’s tight fielding caused two run outs to again put us on the back foot.

We were eventually dismissed for 130 leaving Geelong the victors for the second year running — but a victory well deserved as they were clearly the better team over the two day we played them.