1’s Defend Home Turf Against Old Trinity
After just over nine months away from the hallowed turf of the Plunkett Oval, the Old Xavs were finally back playing cricket at Xavier in their first home game of the 2021/22 season. The Old Xaverians 1st XI lineup was depleted following another COVID case amongst the squad, which forced last week’s man of the match George Stewart, along with Dom Baker and Jack Fagan into home isolation. Also still missing from the team were mainstays Jim Forrest, Callum Todaro and Pat Nunan, while Nic Russ, Lucas Agnoletto and Nick Harries were unavailable. But in their place new skipper Angus Sheedy returned to the side, as did the always dependable Olly Hicks, while young Nick Francis made his debut for the OXCC. The Old Xavs also raided the Camberwell Magpies for Liam Fitzpatrick, Josh “Horse” Nelson and Griffin McComb.
Sheeds won the toss and elected to bat first on a grass covered deck that was a touch slow and well suited for spin and medium pace. Kane Pirera (54) vindicated his decision, dispatching both of Trinity’s opening bowlers through square leg and point, as well as over mid-on and mid-off with several lofted drives, making use of the fielding restrictions during the first eight overs. KP start was so blistering that he brought up his 50 while Hicksy was still in single digits, but soon after he reached that milestone, Kane holed out to long on.
Fitzy (19) and Griffin (19) both chimed in with the bat while Hicksy increased his strike rate. His slow start anchored him to a half century as well before he was bowled for 57. Both Sheeds (9) and Jesse Livermore (8) made cameos, but Horse (21*) finished off the innings strongly to ensure that Old Xavs had a defendable total of 6/196.
Francis (2/27 off 6.3) took the new ball and the young left armer bowled tight lines, but the first wicket fell at the other end when Kane stumped one of the Trinity opening batsmen with a sharp piece of glove work off Fitzy, whose spin opened at the other end. Horse’s (3/21 off 5) offies replaced Fitzy and he produced a marvellous spell that included two wickets in a row which led to a hat-trick ball that hit the pads. The tight field all went up, but sadly David wasn’t moved. Hayden Ellis (0/12 off 4) was very tidy at the other end, while Ed MacIsaac(0/23 off 4), Sheeds (0/27 off 5) and KP (1/36 off 6) all put in good shifts with the cherry.
However, it was Fitzy who finally got the breakthrough after an 83 run 5th wicket partnership by Trinity, when Hicksy caught a snick, his rest from keeping after a gruelling stint with the bat having ended at the drinks break. Fitzy got his third wicket during the next over when the other well established Trinity batsmen hit it down Andrew Seal’s (1*) throat at long on. From then on, the Xavs were in control after wrestling back the momentum, and the required run rate soon got out of hand for Trinity with new batsmen at the crease. Fitzy and Francis cleaned up the tail, with the former taking the best figures out of the Xavs of 4 for 23 off 8 overs. Trinity were dismissed for 171 off 38.3 overs, which meant that Old Xavs won by 25 runs.
It was a solid showing from the Xavs, and while the side was depleted because of COVID and other unavailabilities, the fills-ins were more than up to the task with the ball, taking nine poles between them and ensuring that we could defend the total that Kane and Hicksy had led us to with the bat. Old Xavs didn’t make an error in the field, and Josh Nelson in particular took a beautiful catch to the end the match. However, there is always room for improvement, and the Xavs have to improve their focus in the middle of the innings and not take their foot off the pressure by succumbing a lull as they did once again here.
Next week is set to be a massive double header at header at Xavier, with the 1’s hosting OMs on the Plunkett and the 2’s up against Melbourne High on the Chapel in what should prove to be a run fest. There will be a marquee and barbecue set up for spectators, and the cricket follows on from the Fight4Jon run/walk in the morning, so make sure you get down to watch the Xavs and have a snag or two while supporting the boys secure two Ws in honour of Jonny Catania in what will be a big day for Old Xavs cricket and the Xavier community.
