Grim Defeat at the Hands of Old Wesley

On this fine Sunday, the Old Xaverians 2nd XI were blessed with another home game on the Plunkett, and thus were excited to take on Wesley in an important clash. Losing the toss, the Magoos were thrown the ball on what looked like quite a good batting wicket, so it was clear that early wickets were needed to keep the score down. Callum Abrahams (4/36 off 8) did just that, and in tandem with Will MacKinnon (0/15 off 4), these two put us in a good position after the first 10. However, it became clear that Old Wesley had some decent batting stock, and although Nick Carabine (1/31 off 7), John Ginnane (1/17 off 3), Alex Eden-Lachowicz (1/18 off 4) and Tom Worsnop 1/38 off 8) all managed to take a wicket apiece, the Xavs struggled to curb the scoring rate of the purple haze. A healthy score of 9/203 was achieved by Wesley at the end of their 40, despite a brilliant second spell by Glenno Abrahams, which saw him on a hattrick at one point which would have completed the Michelle for the big fella.

5 an over for 40 consecutive overs is no mean feat, so it was going to be important to put the pressure on Wesley early, but taking plenty of singles and sweating on the bad balls. To their credit, the Wesley opening bowlers bowled a beautiful 5th stump line for the entirety of their 12 over partnership. The dot ball pressure built up, and the Magoos were reeling at 5/44 at drinks. In the 8-18 over period, Joel Cowell (13) and Alex Eden-Lachowicz (14) showed their talent with the bat, but with such a large total on the board, the pressure of 6+ an over proved too much. Matt Perrett (20) and Callum Abrahams (14) had a flurry with the bat as well, but a couple of tail enders were no match for a Wesley bowler who is known to be getting paid to play cricket on a Saturday (must be nice). Rolled for 88 after just 28.1 overs really hurt the lads, as they knew they were better than what they served up. The hard work being put in at training just hasn’t been able to be transferred into the games, despite there being glimpses of talent in all facets. Going forward, the hope is to not have those 5 over periods where there are lapses in concentration, as they are proving very costly.