2016/17 Macgregor Mongrels
Round 1 v Peninsula
17 and 24 September 2016 at D M Henderson Park Lower
DAY ONE:
Cricket is a funny game isn't it.
After winning the toss () and batting, a solid 52 run opening partnership between Umair Iqbal Warraich and Abhijeet Mahoorkar provided an excellent platform for a high score. Smiles all round
A couple of dubious LBWs, a blinder of a catch at slip and some injudicious shots saw wickets tumble. Despite a stubborn 46 ball knock by Paul Jonas and a few handy boundaries by Tim Levitt, the Mongrels could only muster 100.
Mian Waqar took a wicket with his first ball. .
A 39 run, 2nd wicket partnership ended with another Sunny LBW in the 14th over. Then, in Sunny's next over, an LBW and a catch to Sabahat Mahmood off consecutive balls had Peninsula reeling. When, 6 balls later, PJ enticed a catch to Umair at gully, Peninsula were 5/46 at drinks.
Peninsula consolidated after drinks and looked in control before a bizarre run out. The ball deflected to Umair who threw to Matthew Taviani to complete; their key batsman out for 48; Peninsula 6/70.
Two balls later, the play of the day. A lofted on-drive looked set to clear the field before, with the grace of an airborne gazelle, the catch was snatched out of the air by Gary Buddha Sargent . Sarge only got to his feet long enough to be knocked over by his team mates! An absolute screamer. Peninsula 7/70 and the glimpse of first innings was there.
However, the batsmen dug in. With the indefatigable Sunny unable to break through for his 5th, the skipper introduced Umair and Sarge. 8 runs came from the first three overs of spin. Just 6 runs needed for first innings. Then, all of a sudden "crazy" came to town! An innocuous high bouncing "sarge-ball" outside off was fended behind to Matt....8fa and the incoming batsmen caught a glove to one down leg side....9fa. That man Sarge again. The incoming batsman survived the over only to watch the 4th ball of the next over from Umair ricochet of bat and pad to trickle back onto his stumps and dislodge the bail.
All over... All Out for 95.... Whaaa?
First innings to the Mongrels... 0/11 in the 2nd Innings at the close.
DAY TWO:
Resuming at 0/11, the Mongrels' batting lineup performed well on day two thanks mainly to a couple of 50 partnerships between Umair Iqbal Warraich and Khaleel Waqar and then Khaleel and Ashok Subburaman.
Set a chase of 220 after tea, Peninsula were never in it, losing wickets early to the wiley Mian Waqar, who nabbed another 5fa.
Umair, Gary Buddha Sargent, Matthew Taviani and Dave Corrigan also picked up wickets. A slick fielding display was led by Khaleel (2 catches and a stumping), Matt (3 catches in close) Umair ( 2 catches) and Abhijeet Mahoorkar (1 catch).
An outright win to start off the season. Well done lads.
Round 2 v Yesterday’s Heroes
1 and 8 October 2016 at Marchant Park 4
DAY ONE
A pretty weird day of cricket at Marchant 4. It's been a long time since I have seen so many catches go down in the field; Matthew Taviani the lucky recipient on at least 5 occasions on his way to 96.....
..the Mongrels won the toss thanks to a lucky coin discovered by the writer in the pocket of his whites, dug out in the expectation of having to make up numbers. The skipper would have argued this was a good toss to lose; the pitch serving up a few surprises. Nevertheless, the Mongrels fought their way to an impressive 193, with the aid of good long partnerships. 54 between Matt and Tim Levitt and 52 between Matt and Malcolm Lochrie . Tim's 36 was nearly as entertaining as his run out dismissal was tragic. The lower order once again proved difficult to dislodge. The last three wickets held out for 10 overs, adding 25 valuable runs; Paul Jonas was his usual stubborn self in a 59 ball knock. We had 8 overs at them in 21 minutes. Mian Waqar did not disappoint, picking up a wicket from a stunning catch by Shiny at slip and Hemant nearly pulled off a stunner, in short, off the last ball of the day from Gary Buddha Sargent. Big thank you to Sarge for standing at umpire for most of the day in the absence of a B&W...shame on you warehouse.
DAY TWO
The Mongrels' trend of close matches at MP4 continued on Saturday.
With the opposition resuming at 1/23, Mian Waqar and David Corrigan bowled beautifully through the first session to capture three opposition wickets; one of these to a catch by Matthew Taviani running towards third man and diving full length to glove the ball.
It could have been five down at drinks; a confident caught behind appeal off DC turned down. This decision proved costly as the 5th wicket added 111, placing the opposition just 34 runs from first innings.
Sunny and DC returned to the attack. DC's second over was a gem! He struck three times in four balls reducing the opposition to 7/160. The match was turned on it's head. DC struck again, twice in an over, a few overs later and grabbed the last wicket to finish with 7/33 and a second spell of 6/16 from 7 overs.
The mongrels snatching first innings victory by 10 runs.
It was batting practice for the two remaining hours of the day; Sabahat Mahmood and Abhijeet Mahoorkar combining for a 55 run stand and Luke Taviani backed up some excellent banter in the field with a quick-fire 41. The Mongrels finished on 145 from 26 overs.
Great win lads.
Back at DM Henderson Lwr next week v Griffith Uni.
Matches now begin at 1.00pm and end at 5.50pm.
Please be there by 12.30pm; earlier if you want a hit at the nets.
Round 3 v Griffith University
15 and 22 October at D M Henderson Lower
In reply to GU's 7/338, the Mongrels started well and at a cracking pace on Saturday. Matthew Taviani raced to 52 from just 35 deliveries before getting an edge to a wide one. Malcolm Lochrie and Jakob Evelyn played solid innings.
Dave Corrigan blasted a fine 89 and received great support from Paul Jonas and Gary Buddha Sargent in partnerships of 35 and 45 which took the Mongrels past the follow on figure.
It took an amazing reflex C&B to remove Dave and end the innings.
Bad light stopped play about 45 min early.
Round 4 v Albany Creek
29 October and 5 November at 7th Brigade Park 1
DAY ONE:
Week 1 of the Mongrels v Albany Creek Hawks. The Hawks dominated most of the day and compiled 200 for the loss of just 3 wickets by 5.00pm. The last 7 wickets fell in the last session for just 60 runs.
Gary Buddha Sargent was the chief destroyer with the aid of catches by Nabeel Khan at slip and Umair Iqbal Warraich and Matthew Taviani in the outfield.
Nabeel also picked up wickets off successive balls.
Veterans Paul Jonas and Mian Waqar kept a tight rein on the batsmen and Matt Taviani bowled with fire to pick up his opposite and top scorer. Next week promises to be an interesting week.
DAY TWO:
A tale of two innings for the Mongrels today.
In reply to Albany Creek Hawks' 264, the Mongrels were rolled for 80 in the first innings and forced to follow on.
The second innings was a different story with Matthew Taviani taking charge, blasting 147 from 108 balls.
Matt received good support from Abhijeet Mahoorkar and Luke Taviani in partnerships of 62 and 69 which took the Mongrels ahead of the target.
A First Innings loss, but an outright averted should keep the Mongrels on top of the table.
Round 6 v Peninsula
26 November 2016 at Marchant Park 1
All over before tea on Marchant Park 1 as Mian Waqar and Matthew Taviani tore through the Peninsula top order, taking six wickets between them. Peninsula were 5/20 after 10 and all out before the next 10 were completed. Luke Taviani was a menace as usual, but also picked up five dismissals behind the stumps.
Veterans, Gary Buddha Sargent and Paul Jonas chimed in with wickets; Sarge picking up two of his three in the final over.
Any glimmer of hope for the opposition was extinguished when skipper, Matt, launched into the bowling with 16 off the first over including two glorious drives on either side of the wicket.
Another 18 run blitz in the 4th over took the score to within 14 runs of the target. Sabahat Mahmood, provided strong support with a stylish Innings and steered the team to the total in 7.1 overs.
Round 7 v Yesterday’s Heroes
27 November 2016 at 7th Brigade Park 2
Something you don't see very often, but I hope to see a lot more of, is a full Macgregor team at the ground before any of the opposition had arrived.
In the end we had to wait till 1.15 before the opposition had seven players available.
Bowling first, Matthew Taviani, carried on his form from the previous day. Assisted by some fine catching by Abhijeet Mahoorkar, Gary Buddha Sargent, Sabahat Mahmood and Nabeel Khan, Matt picked up four wickets including one off the final ball of his spell.
Umair Iqbal Warraich picked up three including two "shiny" stumpings to Malcolm Lochrie and another good catch, this time in the outfield, to Nabs.
Restricted to 29 overs, the Mongrels target was 145. Umair and Saddam Sadiq, piled on a 94 run opening stand to set the platform. Sabahat and Matt added 40 off 20 balls between them to bring about the victory off the last ball of the 25th over.
Round 8 v Griffith University
3 December 2016 at D M Henderson Lower
Batting woes again for the Mongrels today, dismissed for 84 against Griffith Uni. Luke Taviani showed good form in the opening position.
Griffith easily accounted for the 85 runs needed, losing just one wicket to Nabeel Khan along the way.
Round 9 v Albany Creek
10 December at South Pine Sports Reserve
Losing is never fun. You have to find the positives and move on. The positives yesterday was that we played a strong opposition and battled well.
Duncan McLean epitomized how well you can do when you understand your own game. Dunc the pump (you had to be there for a beer at the end to understand the nickname), bowled 6 overs 2/21 without a wide or no ball including bowling at the death. Jackson Murphy also picked up two wickets.
With the fertilizer from the nearby turf farm playing havoc with his sinuses, Matthew Taviani managed a top score 21, 1/31 from 7 overs and some brilliant ground fielding. In fact, ground fielding was generally pretty good on a lovely playing surface.
Back at Tingalpa next week.
Round 10 v Rebel Tourists
17 December 2016 at Kianawah Park 11
Close, but no cigar yesterday for the Mongrels.
There was good fight from the batting order to compile 148. Matthew Taviani and Ali Cheema combined to set a solid platform in a 60 run second-wicket partnership.
Abhijeet Mahoorkar and Ashok Subburaman added 20 in the middle order.
Some late order magic from Mian Waqar with good support from Duncan McLean and Stuart Kidd added 40 valuable runs from the last couple of wickets.
In the field, the Mongrels were committed, putting bodies on the line to stop runs. Sunny shone again giving up just 10 runs from his seven overs.
Matt Taviani, bowled a devastating second spell to finish with 3/16 and Gary Buddha Sargent picked up three wickets. No win, but a very good effort by all.
A very merry Christmas to all. See you next year.