ByAnonymous, Anonymous
MAL produced the biggest victory in the history of the club as records were sent tumbling at Old Camdenians.
On another beautiful day, LMV arrived with only nine players. They won the toss and chose to bowl first - a decision that surprised their opponents. MAL's openers padded up with relish. Five balls into Joel Newman's innings he was clean bowled by a delivery that kept extremely low, hitting the base of the stumps.
This brought out Warren Averbuch who joined Gideon Caller at the crease with the score at 3-1. A monumental partnership of 186 for the second wicket then set the tone for the rest of the innings. Both batsman reached their fifties in two very sensible and similar innings, although both were helped by dropped catches, missed stumpings, and only nine fielders.
Caller kicked on after his half century with only three more dot balls in his innings as he raced to his century. Averbuch continued to play with caution, keeping his strike rate below Caller's, although he turned on the style with a huge six straight down the ground.
Averbuch eventually departed for a brilliant 76 off 66 balls, bringing out Kevin Lotzof to the crease. He didn't hang about, making his intentions clear from ball one - pushing hard for singles and smashing some boundaries.
Caller then reached his century before succumbing to the bowling two balls later. His maiden century came off only 82 deliveries. Neil Myeroff often commented in the pavilion how perfect Caller's technique was and he received a big, resounding applause upon his return after his dismissal.
Yoav Lebens then joined Neil at the crease and in the next 10 overs the two batsman went crazy with the greatest hitting in the history of the club. Lebens blitzed his way to 57 off only 23 deliveries, although as he said himself, he was yet to get going in his innings and he was disappointed to have ruined his average by getting himself out.
At the other end, in, unfortunately for Caller, the greatest innings of the season came from Lotzof who destroyed the LMV attack to reach an unbeaten 93 off only 35 deliveries, including two huge sixes, and some absolutely perfect shots for 4, all 15 of them. As Lebens said, "this was one of the greatest innings in the history of MAL" as 177 runs came from the last 10 overs.
Chris Tomazeski came out four runs behind Lebens for the season and finished on 5 not out to move ahead of his teammate in the race for top run scorer. The innings finished with a big six from Kevin as MAL reached a huge club record of 386 runs.
Riled up after receiving stick from the opposition during tea, MAL came out of the blocks flying with Lebens again bowling another brilliant spell, finishing with 2-30. He was helped with a tight spell at the other end of five overs from Tomazeski , unfortunate not to pick up a wicket, conceding 26 runs. Neil Myeroff replaced Chris after his spell and bowled brilliantly taking two wickets at a very tight economy rate of 17 runs in six overs.
Eli Richards replaced Lebens after his eight overs, and once again picked up a wicket to extend his lead at the top of the wicket charts to nine, two ahead of Lebens on seven.
Avi was unfortunate not to pick up a wicket in his spell as the batsman continued to frustrate, with MAL trying hard to pick up the last few wickets. Ami Wynbourne was more lucky at the other end, bowling a very fast spell, with one over of complete slow-ball variation, as he picked up the final two wickets. It took him to the third position in the wicket leaderboard behind Lebens and Richards.
An incredible batting performance was complemented by a par bowling performance, although it didn't really matter when the opposition only sent out eight batsman, and there was 386 runs on the board to defend.
Five wins out seven now as MAL push on for promotion and perhaps even a sneaky chance at the title.