One-all in Twenty20 Big Bash: Not enough to go through

Moonee Valley won one of its two matches in the Kookaburra Twenty20 Statewide Challenge, but it wasn't enough for us to go through to the next round.

The teams were the same as those which played off last season, and again the result was the same.

We were representing the North West Cricket Association, while the VTCA was represented by Airport West/St Christophers and the MMVCA by St Francis.

The three play-off games were played at Buckley Park's home ground on Sunday, November 7.

First up was Moonee Valley v Airport West/St Christophers.

Airport West - which was a grand finallist in the VTCA's Senior Division last season, posted an impressive tally of 6/164 off its 20 overs, with Evan Blythe and Amit Chaudhary each taking two wickets for us.

We looked in trouble at 6/80 at the half-way mark in the chase, but Mark Gauci and Kris Garland had just come together. We didn't lose another wicket, and got to 6/168 with 10 balls to spare. Mark finished on 42no with Kris on 33no. Arosha Perera made 38 and Raj Aiyappan 24.

St Francis then easily accounted for Airport West.

St Francis tallied 8/146 against Moonee Valley, with Amit Chaudhary and Evan Blythe each taking 3/29.

We thought we could chase down this total, but it wasn't to be. We finished the 20 overs on 8/128. Mark Gauci again carried the team with 41, while Arosha Perera and Joel Wilford each made 19.

Our team was: Mark Gauci, Pat Felmingham, Amit Chaudhary, Geoff Smith, Ben Thomas, Raj Aiyappan, Arosha Perera, Craig Pridham, Evan Blythe, Joel Wilford and Kris Garland.