We won the toss and elected to bowl in extremely hot conditions, knowing it was going to take a full team effort. Our innings couldn’t have started any better with an outstanding opening partnership between Seamus and Blayde. Seamus made batting look easy, finding the boundary regularly and bringing up a well-deserved half-century, while Blayde played his role perfectly before falling for 16. At 1/95, we were in complete control. Seamus continued to put Balwyn’s bowling to the sword, motoring along beautifully before eventually being dismissed for a superb 80 off 67 balls. A middle-order wobble followed, losing 6/45 (with Lachie McKenna’s 43 a standout), which saw Balwyn fight their way back into the contest at 8/178. Huge credit to Ansh and Pat, who dug in under pressure to put together a crucial last-wicket partnership, pushing us to a defendable 208. Ansh finished on 19 and Pat 9*

We knew we had to bowl and field the house down - and the boys delivered just that. Don struck early once again, taking the first wicket in the 3rd over, before a sensational run-out from Shorty had Balwyn 2/12. Pat bowled an excellent opening spell, and despite Balwyn skipper Andrew Chalkley batting beautifully for his 43, we were able to remove him with the score at 3/68. We kept battling hard in the field despite the heat, with Don picking up his second wicket to have Balwyn 4/80, followed by another brilliant run-out from Pat McArdle to make it 5/121 in the 25th over. As fatigue set in all round, a partnership began to build, and a couple of simple catches went down (including a shocker of a chest mark from yours truly). Ansh bowled a really nice spell, and I was able to chip in late with the ball, taking a few quick poles to put the game out of reach for Balwyn. Sonny finished things off by taking the final wicket, sealing a hard-fought win against a very good cricket side.

Batting Highlights
Seamus 80(67)
Lachie 46(55)
Ansh 19(22)

Bowling highlights:
Myself 4/14 (4)
Don 2/31 (6)
1 wicket each to Lachie and Sonny

I’m super proud of the group for finding a way to win in tough conditions—fighting to put a score on the board and then defending it with grit and persistence throughout the day. Especially after a tough last few games where we have lowered our colours a couple of times– that was the sort of effort were looking from our Spotty boys! We roll back into red-ball cricket this week at home vs Yarraville.