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Match report and summary Click on the link for the Finals Report.doc
Round 11 – Coolaroo Vs RMIT- RMIT wins outrightComing off a defeat RMIT “A-Grade” needed to head in the right directions for the upcoming finals. What better place to be for the team to perform and go in to the finals pumped up. Against Coolaroo the Captain and Players themselves demanded a lift from the group and by God they got it. With a master plan in mind Captain Makka sent the opposition in to bat. We got off to a flier and had 1 wicket each in the first 3 overs. From then onwards it was raining wickets. KD, Roy and Dougy all picking up 2 wickets each and Rishi picked up 3. Coolaroo stumbled and couldn’t gather any strong partnerships ending their innings at a total of 87. RMIT Batting started with a hiccup with John, Sameer and Rohan quickly departing. But in the heat it was the sheer brilliance of Sachin and Makka. Sachin played one of his most sensible innings perhaps the innings that revived his form. Tonking the ball all over the park, Sachin ended up with 43. Makka on the other hand played his classy cuts and drives and got us through the 1st innings total. But hang on a sec, here comes Dhaval to the crease. Dhaval tonked Coolaroo bowler in a fashion they probably haven’t been tonked all season. Dhaval scored an unbeaten 55 in the 7 overs he spent in the middle. The RMIT innings was declared on the next day ending Day 1 with Coolaroo 87 and RMIT 209/4.
Day 2 – Coolaroo was sent in to bat after RMIT’s declaration and once again they were facing the music. KD and Roy doing the trick early. But due handy little partnerships Coolaroo kept on ticking. Untill Rishi decided to wake up and start bowling. The man bowled magnificently. No batsman had a clue of him and he cleaned Coolaroo by taking a 5 wicket hall. Coolaroo were dismissed in their 2nd innings on 85 and therefore RMIT defeated Coolaroo by an innings defeat, clinching the 10 points for their outright victory.
Man of the match – Rishi K. Great Bowling buddy a total 8 wickets for the Match.
Round 10- RMIT vs Royal Park Reds - RMIT lost on first innings.Maka won the toss and decided to field. Our bowlers especially Atif started off well without any luck. He bowled beautifully in his opening spell. After seeing off the new ball bowlers, Royal Park Red’s batsman started scoring freely. Soon they reached 97 without losing any wicket. Soon John was brought into the attack and he struck immediately, removing both the openers in quick succession. Luck was not going our way at any stage. Billy brown was beautifully caught by Ajay of KD, but he umpire giving it NOT OUT. John bowled beautifully supported by Maka picking up 6 and 3 wickets respectively. We should have had Royal Park Reds for a score about 150, but they went on to score 238 in 51.3 overs. Rushi and Sameer were sent in to tackle the new ball. Sameer was caught in the crease to an in swinging ball given out LBW for a duck. Unlucky – as the ball would probably have missed leg. Rohan went in and played some glorious shots but couldn’t last long and soon RMIT were struggling at stumps with 3 wickets already gone. Danish and Ajay started the next day quite well, with some strong defense. But Danish perished on 11 given out LBW. Sachin went in next and he and Ajay had a partnership going, soon Ajay hitting a massive six over square leg. Sachin got tricked in by a slow and short delivery only managing to pull it to short fine leg. Ajay continued the good work of scoring runs and soon he too was given out caught behind. Soon RMIT were struggling with 6 for 89. The tail didn’t wag and soon RMIT were bundled out for 104. Royal Park Reds asked RMIT to follow on. We had our usual openers opening this time in Sam and John. John was simply unstoppable hitting the ball all over the park. Sam gave him good support and RMIT at tea were around 75 runs without losing any wickets. John soon got to his 50 and the score was close to a 100, when John got out for 58. Suddenly RMIT were struggling again after a good start with 4-123. Maka and Danish steadied the ship and ensured that we didn’t lose outright. Danish played a superb match saving knock of 42 when he was unfortunately run out after having a terrible mix up with Ameet. Man of the Match – John T
Round 9- RMIT vs Aberfeldie St Johns - RMIT lost by and inns and 32 runs We won the toss yet again this season but this time around it was a tricky decision to bat or bowl. the pitch and the outfield was wet and the forecast was for more showers throughout the day, so the captain took a punt and decided to bat which was ironically the first time this season. John, Sam and Rishi got us off to a checked start in those challenging conditions and at one stage we were 74/3 and were looking good post a competitive score but kept loosing wickets at regular intervals and were bundled out for a below par 143. John, Rishi and Ajay chipped in with a few runs but definitely not enough to post a commanding score. Our turn to bowl and things went bad to worse, we got smashed around the park with pretty ordinary bowling and a few dropped chances. The score read 140/1 at stumps.
We had a setback to start things off the second day with a couple of our players not turning up which meant we only had 9 players on the field. It was clear that aberfeldie were out to score some quick runs and put pressure back on us to save the game. However this time around it was a better effort with the ball and in the field but that didn’t keep the aber’s from scoring 265 runs with a lead of about 122 runs on a bright sunny day. We went in to bat trying to deny the opposition an outright and also the outright lead on the championship ladder. The story was the same with another batting collapse for the second time this match which resulted in an embarrassing outright loss for the team.
Overall it was disappointing performance in every aspect of the game and a lot of work to be done in preparation for the next few games and the final series.
Captains Man of the Match: John T 68 runs (match aggregate)
Round 8- RMIT vs Strathmore Heights - RMIT lost by 16 runs First game after the break and we were bound to be rusty. I have to admit personally even I wasn’t match ready. We won the toss and decided to bowl on a warm day.KD and Rishi started the proceeding for us. We didn’t get off to a good start with the openers putting on a century stand, our fielding helping them along the way. We were quite generous throughout the game dropping quite a few catches. None of bowlers really had much impact in the game with Dale May getting yet another hundred for them. Aiden got injured midway in the innings and had to go to the hospital. With ten men in field for us Strathmore ended their innings with a good score of 5/240 in the allotted 40 overs.
With a batsman short I and Rishi started the chase for us. Rishi was going great guns at one end and we were on our way putting on 44 for the first wicket in only 5 overs. I got out, only to get the in-form Rohan to the crease. Both Rishi and Rohan played some gorgeous pulls and drives to keep us on track. Rishi was finding boundaries at ease and hit 3 consecutive fours twice in his innings of 51 before he was caught behind. Sachin and Rohan then took us till the first drinks break. We were on target scoring at nearly a run a ball. We lost our way in between with wickets in quick succession. Rohan played couple of handsome cover drives but in going for one too many missed out on what would have been yet another half century. It was Ajay who played magnificently with the lower order to keep us in hunt for another win. The game went down to the wire with us needing 17 of the last 2 overs and one wicket in hand. It wasn’t to be the fairy tale finish for us as Ajay got caught in the covers. All in all it was a great chase and a great game. Apart from our fielding which we need to improve considerably to have any chance of winning the flag it was a good game played in the right spirit. It was our first loss of the season and only if we had full 11 on the field the result might have been different. Having said that we cannot afford to drop catches and let batsmen get away with it. If we are thinking of having a serious chance of winning the flag this year we need to put in a lot more effort in our fielding. Man of the Match: Ajay Kulkarni (50)
Round 7- RMIT vs Coolaroo -Match abandoned due to rain
Round 6- RMIT vs Strathmore Heights – RMIT WIN first inn lead (by Rishi) Day 1: For the first time this season we lost the toss but yet we were asked to field first. It was a bright sunny day and Strathmore heights got off to a steady start. Hardik and Doug bowled good first spells but were unlucky not to get any wickets. Nick as he did a several times in B grade got us our initial breakthrough and from then on Strathmore heights never really got going. Doug coming back in his second spell along with john created immense pressure and picked up wickets at regular intervals. Both john and Doug picked up 4 wickets each. This enabled us to restrict Strathmore heights to a below par total of 158. Our innings got off to a flier thanks to dhaval; he made those runs in quick time until he was sharply held at short leg. We finished the day with the run machine Rohan and our skipper Makka at the crease. The score at stumps was 72/2. Day 2: The aim was to get past the score and if possible make some quick runs and enforce the heights to bat again. Makka looked solid at the crease until he was miraculously caught at short leg. I was at square leg umpiring and trust me the ball was traveling. Great effort from the fieldsman (B. Fielding) and he can keep his cracked box as a souvenir. We kept loosing wickets at regular intervals but we had rohan at the other end, which ensured that we reached our target of 158. Rohan eventually perished at 72 and was the last batsman out. We asked Strathmore heights to bat again but it was highly optimistic that we would pull off an outright, but was definitely worth a shot.Overall great effort from our bowlers to restrict the opposition to 158 and great effort with the bat from rohan and dhaval.
Man of the Match:Rohan Singh 72, Doug Nash 4/17 (17 overs)
Round 5- RMIT vs Maribyrnong Park – RMIT WIN first inn lead (by KD) Day 1:Having won 5th toss in a row ,the conditions were right for some quick bowling.Bowling was opened by Roy and Rohan.Roy started with a good first over hitting the batsman on the body a few times.After that things went down hill.Both Rohan and Roy got hit for tons of runs. After a few overs from them Maka introduced Rishi and KD but even they couldn't stop opposition sloggin them out of the park.I must say that they were not hitting quality shots but none the less they were geting runs on board.The opposition reached 90 in just 9 overs without the loss of any wicket and things looked bit worrying. Maka then introduced the spinners.Doug bowled beautifully and got us the first break through danger man R Telfer caught for 67.Maka and John bowled very well to restrict them to 178/3 by tea break.After tea it was a different story all together.John was charged and so was maka.John just ran thru them and got his first hatrick. It was a very brilliant effort by the spinners and they got them out at 215 in 50 overs. We were then put into bat and we had around 22 overs for the day.Dhval and rishi opened the batting for us and batted beautifully.Unfortunately Dhaval got out at 35 and Rohan went in.Rohan played very uncharacteristically but Rishi was on a roll and finished the day at 49. We scored 105 on the first day in 22 overs with the loss of 1 wicket.
Day 2:It was a nice sunny day and we had a set plan in mind to get the maximum points.Rohan started the day much differently to the way he played previous week going all out after the bowling.He was dealing in boundaries soon overtook Rishi who was solid and looking all set for a hundred.Both played brilliantly, rohan sending a few in the tennis courts nearby.But just as we got near the oppposition scores rohan got out .Maka was planning to go for an out right win.The batsman were told to go in and hit.Sachin started brilliantly.Unfortunately sachin got caught in the deep when he tried to up the tempo.Then john went in and played with gay abandon.He hit the ball at will. It was the first A-grade game for DJ and he played a few good shots as well.After DJ went out, i came in and contributed with a few sixes but eventually perished going for one too many.There was useful contribution from the lower order and we ended up getting our first score past 300.Our innings folded on 349 scored of just 57 overs on the stroke of tea in with S.condon getting 6 wickets for them. We had around 35 overs to bowl opposition out. Chasing 135 to save the outrite they didnt start too well, losing their first innings star R. Telfer for 8 brilliantly caught of Dougie. Their captain walked in trying to save the game and he batted well.KD got us the next break through n it looked like we could wrap this up. John got the S. Condon with a straighter one n we were on track. But Rob n his partner survived the next half n hour n Maka had to call the match off. None the less it was brilliant team effort from everyone. Rohan,Dhaval n Rishi batted well , and spinners John, Maka n dough bowled well ably supported by some gud fielding. Although I have to say we need a bit of improvement there. Man of the Match: John Thangarajah(5/27 including a hatrick + 42)
Round 4- RMIT vs Flemington colts – RMIT WIN first inn lead Match report by Maka First day: We won the toss 4th time in a row this season and decided to do the usual, field first. On a very humid day KD and Roy opened the bowling for us. We didn’t get off to a good start and with the opening partnership looking dangerous; Roy was replaced by Rishi who immediately got us a wicket. Rishi was moving the ball both ways beating the bat regularly much to the frustration of everyone. Dough was introduced from KD’s end. He was bowling nice and tight with a set plan in mind which managed to get him the important wicket of their captain. With Rishi consistently beating the bat and Dough bowling well runs were hard to come by. After drinks break Rohan got to bowl and he managed to break a steady looking partnership. On the other end Doug got yet another LBW. We went into tea with Flemington at 88/4.KD was bought straight after lunch and he bowled brilliantly with good pace and swing to get 2 quick wickets. From there on Flemington never looked like putting up a decent score and eventually finished the day on 174/9 with one of their batsman retiring hurt of a nasty Sam delivery. Second day: we were chasing 175 on beautiful day for batting. Sam and John opened the innings but Sam didn’t last long and John was joined by Rohan. Both batted brilliantly to bring up 50 of the innings and we looked set for a comfortable victory until Rohan got out to a shocker of a bowl. Sachin replaced Rohan and looked good from the start with his parents watching from boundary. John on the other hand was unstoppable putting the bad deliveries away at ease which included a monstrous 18 runs over (2 huge sixes and a 4). But his innings was cut short by a good delivery. I joined Sachin and the 2 of us batted it out till first drinks break. Sachin was batting sensibly and was playing some nice shots including one flick of his legs (Never seen him play that shot before) It was pure timing. Sachin fell for 25 and Ajay came to the middle. He started of nervously but soon settled playing some typical Ajay late cuts and ‘over the cover’ shots. I lost my concentration and spooned a simple catch to cover point. At this stage we still needed 70 odd runs and match suddenly became interesting. Ghosts from previous match were here to haunt us again. But Danish and Ajay played sensibly and guided us to an excellent win. It was good to c Ajay back in form with a brilliant 50. Good all round performance from everyone in the field (we didn’t drop any catches). Good work team and hope we keep up the excellent effort. Man of the Match: Ajay Kulkarni (53 no)
Round 3- Pascovale United VS RMIT – RMIT WIN BY 1 WICKET Match report by rohan singh First day : Sachin Rabade was the captain for this match and Danish his deputy. On clear 25 deg day, sachin won the toss and elected to bowl. It worked out well for us with new ball bowlers Sameer and roy getting good bounce and swing. There were lots of plays and miss before Sameer got us the breakthrough. Roy was replaced by Rishi at the other end and he too moved the ball both ways beating the bat regularly. On the other end Atif started off with some good line and length. He kept his pace up and with some good bouncers got the batsman jumping around. Pascoe vale had two set batsman playing well and taking their time to settle in. Dougie was introduced into the attack and he got the ball talking with some great spin bowling. Deservedly he got the breakthrough and then the proceedings become a bit sedate. Pascoe vale were happily nudging the singles around but soon dougie got a wicket courtesy excellent catch by skipper. This started the rut for them. I was bowling at the other end and managed to get their captain out.Dougie and john then polished the tail with john having figures of 3/5 which was outrageously good.He was well supported by some magnificent slip catching from captain.Overall good all round effort by the bowlers and the fielders to not let the intensity down and keep the pressure up. It was all backed up by some smart field placement and 4 superb catches by the captain himself.With only 12 overs for the day, we started the chase by sending Rishi and Danish as openers. Rishi played some great shots to get us off on a positive note. But soon got bowled by playing the ball on to the wicket. Roy was then sent in as a night watchman. Both him and Danish finished off the day on 1/14.
Second day: On a 31 degree day we couldn't have asked for anything better than "BATTING". On one end roy was playing his natural aggressive game and on the other end danish was playing sensible cricket in to get amongst the runs. It was a good start but soon roy got caught trying to go for extravagant drive.Sameer was the next man in but he got a beauty first up and was bowled. John got in next and stabilized the innings somewhat. Playing the bad balls for the boundary and defending solidly. And just when we thought that john and danish will take us all the way. John got out playing a pull. I got in but couldnt last long .Sachin joined danish and both played intelligently with out taking any risks and trying to rotate the strike. Danish was next to go, caught in slips. This got Ajay on the crease. Ajay and sachin both played brilliantly to get us to 100 runs with only 39 runs left, it was looking like that match is in our hands. But Sachin played a tired shot and was got out caught in the deep . Dhaval came in with around 20 odd runs to win.Ajay and Dhaval saw us through till the tea break. After tea, dhaval played with his usual flair and hit some typical expansive drives and pulls to get us within 6 runs of victory.But he tried playing too fine and was out caught in the gully. Atif and Ajay then managed to get us the all important 6 points before Ajay got out.Dougie was the last man in. Dougie and atif played out another two overs after which the captains called the match. All said and done, Our bowlers did a great job with fielders not letting up the intensity. On a difficult pitch we could have batted a bit better. Danish, john, sachin and ajay played good knocks to get us over. Well done everyone . Looking forward to the next game. Man of the Match: Sachin Rabade (excellent 4 catches and 32)
Round 2- Aberfeldie St Johns VS RMIT – RMIT WIN BY 8 WICKETS In overcast conditions, RMIT was set to play Aberfeldie St Johns in the 2nd round of the season. Not one player wanted the match to be abandoned or considered as a draw due to weather or a cricket field flooded with water from one side of the field. So much water Atif wouldn’t be able to take his run up, unless he wanted to swim halfway get up and then run. RMIT won the toss and elected to bowl. We didn’t get off to a flashy start spilling a few sitters in the field however the bowlers didn’t stop trying. Atif and Roy tried to get the breakthrough but were unlucky. In a small ground there was very little margin for error and basically anything on leg-stump, pitched up or short of a good length was dispatched for a 6. Aberfeldie batsman were using more air rather than hitting along the ground. However our first bowling change did the trick and Rishi picked up a wicket on his 1st delivery of the day. However that still didn’t stop their onslaught. KD was also brought on, but as others couldn’t find the breakthrough. At drinks Aberfeldie were 112/1. Coming back to a more eventful second half, Aberfeldie were looking to set a score of 270 as they were travelling at the speed of knots. To stabilise the innings from our perspective John was called on from one end and Sameer from the other. Both did a great job bowling nice and straight. However it was the 4th change bowler R.P. Singh (Rohan Paji Singh) who got the breakthrough on his first delivery of the afternoon. John & Roy chipped in with wickets towards the last few overs. However the highlight of the innings was in the 2nd last over when Atif pulled an muscle near his abdomen. He was in so much pain a car had to be bought on field and he was then taken to emergency hospital. Thanks to Makka Atif, along with Danish (Match captain) took Atif off and got him to the hospital but soon returned as Atif was feeling much better and had company of family. The final over was completed by Roy who got another wicket and Aberfeldie completed the innings 5-239 in 40 Overs. On the way back we got the news that John had been dismissed early in his innings and so Rohan Singh was promoted up the order .From that point onwards the whole afternoon belonged to an fabulous innings played by Sameer and Rohan. Sameer smashed boundaries at will and played with awesome timing, picking the gaps and handy wrist work. He reached his second fifty of the season in no time and kept the runs ticking. On the other hand it must be said Rohan Singh had the innings of his life. When a boundary was needed he delivered it. A combination of classic hitting along with superb running between wickets bought the required runs lower and lower. With 10 overs to go we still needed 79. Sameer kept hitting the runs and became the first player to make a century in our club this season(thank god he raised his bat, when he made the fifty he didn’t even raise his hand). In the end Sameer ran out of puff and was run out on 114. A superb knock Sammy well done. However losing his partner didn’t affect Rohan Singh. In an over when things looked tight Rohan Singh dispatched the bowlers into the trees for consecutive 6’s. Bringing the total down and since Rishi was now the 2nd batsman he joined the party hitting a quick 4 and 6. We reached the total of 243 for the loss of 2 wickets. Rohan Singh finished off on 94* not out & Rishi 11 * not out. Well done team, a well deserved victory, its been a long time coming but its as sweet as anything. Bowlers I know you had a hard day but you tried your hearts out. A special mention to Sameer & Rohan who won the match for the TEAM. Man of the Match – Sameer Khan 114
Game 1 (One day game) - vs Royal Park Reds by Sachin Rabade First game of the season, the whole team looked pumped up and rearing to go. Makarand Dhuri - Maka (skipper for RMIT – A Grade) won the toss against Royal Park Reds and as decided opted to field. We didn’t have a great start to the season as the bowlers were a little off length. Roy bowled beautifully without any luck. Batsman played and missed quite a few times but no snicks came through to the keeper or the slips. Eventually, Atif got our first break through and as it often happens in cricket, he got the 2nd wicket too. This time the bowl came in super fast taking the batsman’s off stump before the bat coming down on the ball. This was a treat to watch. Mid way of their innings, Royal Park Reds were 2 for 82. Then the skipper made a few smart bowling changes, KD came in to the attack and bowled a wonderful spell. He gave away just 18 runs in 6 overs without any luck for getting a wicket. John T bowled beautifully grabbing, the key wicket of Billy Brown. The oppositions were not able to score freely on John’s bowling. John ended up with figures of 1 for 18 in 8 overs with first 2 overs being Maiden. John and Roy finished off the innings, restricting Royal Park Reds to a gettable target of 5 for 175 in 40 overs. We (RMIT) started the proceedings quite well with John T and Sameer Khan scoring at will. They got off to a flyer scoring 50 runs in a mere 7 overs with Sameer hammering boundaries at will. That lowered the target considerably, needing 126 in 33 overs with 10 wickets in hand. Sameer started to rotate the strike by taking some nice and quick singles. John T got into the groom by hammering a few boundaries as well. John reached his 50 before Sameer although Sameer being aggressive of the two at the beginning. 100 runs came in the 16th over needing just 76 of the remaining 24 overs. Mid way of our innings we were cruising along with both batsman reaching fifties. After 20 overs we were 0 for 135. The game was still not over, both the batsman made sure that we got home without any hiccups, hammering remaining 46 runs in just 5 overs. We got home without losing a wicket and that too in more than 15 overs to spare. John T was unbeaten on 92 and Sameer K unbeaten on 66. Great start to the season. Keep it up Guys. Well done. Captains Man of the match – John T |
