5th March Semi Final vs Bag of Marbles

We finished first on the ladder, and the Marbles who had been third for most of the season, finished second after winning in the last round.

The game was played on the MCG, and they batted first.
Their first pair made a solid 25 runs, with the overs bowled by King (12), Mahstar (3), Thorpe (10), Mahstar (0). The fourth over included a runout and a stumping.

Philbert (7), the Don (4), Daints (5) and Cap'n Bob (5) bowled to the second pair who made 21. Their third pair were devestating as they punished our bowling attack. The unlucky bowlers were Bruce (15), Daints (18), Thorpe (7), and King (12). The batsmen reached the back net atleast three times and the only wicket came with a runout in Thorpe's over.
The final pair started well taking 15 from Philbert's over, but then Bruce (-4) and Cap'n Bob (-5) hit back with two wickets in each over. Thorpe's inclose leg side fielding effected a runout on the first ball of Bruce's over and his other wicket was bowled. Bob got the runout from his own bowling, and the Don took a catch on the back net. The Don had the final over and was taken for 12 runs including a wide and a seven. The total runs scored was 116. However during our batting innings in our final pair there was a close runout that wasn't given and one of their team swore at the umpire which resulted in the loss of 5 runs from their total score.

Philbert and Bruce batted in the first pair for us and set about the chase of the runs. They started well taking 16 from the first over, and lost just one wicket in each of the next three overs, as Phil hit the back net four times, and Bruce hit it once. The partnership was 36 runs with Phil making 29 from 12 and faced 3 wides, whilst Bruce Netted 1 run after losing three wickets with one caught and two runouts.

Cap'n and Mahstar scored slowly as they faced several extras. Back to back wickets in their second over with Mahstar being runout and Bob being Caught took the score back to 31, but they rebuilt the innings and lost just one more wicket (Mahstar bowled) as they totalled 12. Bob hit one three with the rest of the runs in singles, 2s or extras. Cap'n netted 4 runs from 11 balls, with one wicket and facing 1 wide and 2 noballs. Mahstar netted -2 runs from 13 balls with two wickets and facing 1 wide and 1 noball.

The Don and The King lost three wickets on their way to 24 runs. The Don hit two 4s and the jackpot ball for 2 that's doubled to 4. The Don was caught by the keeper once and the King was runout twice. Don made 14 runs from 14 balls after the wicket and faced 4 wides and 1 noball. King made zero from 10 balls after the two wickets.

Thorpe and Daints came in with the score on 72 and needing 45 runs to win, and were doing it easily in with 17 and 11 from the first two overs faced. During the 14th over was when the player swore and the runs taken off which left just 12 runs to win from the final two overs. They scored 10 from the 15th which left just 2 runs from the final over. Daints scored 2 and a single with Thorpe scoring 2 inbetween, which gave us a four run lead with two balls remaining. Thorpe hit the second last ball into the net behind him and was caught so one run for the tie would be enough to put us through to the Grand Final, and Daints faced it. Success!! The run was scored.

The Marbles then faced Boons in the Pre Liminary final after Boons had beaten Black Hill Steve's in the other Semi Final.