Last night was the semi-final of the A grade TTV pennant. My team St. Kilda Cricket were up against Macabbi. We had met twice before in the season with both teams notching up 1 win so we knew it was going to be a tough night.

The format of the pennant is 3 players per team with everybody playing everybody in a singles match for a total of 9 matches. In the finals the match stops when a team has won the night by winning 5 matches.

The first match of the night had my team mate Brian Berry up against a long term Rival Lory Bisiach. The two have a long history of long hard fought battles and this proved to be no different. Brian took the first set and held two set points in the second before Lory hit back to take the second 13-11. This was going to be an important start to the night and it was hard to see those two set points slip away. After the second set I had a word to Brian who was still feeling confident that he was playing the right tactics but just needed to execute them a little better. It turned out that Brian was right on the money and he took the third set to lead 2-1. In the fourth set Brian led 10-6 and I was sure we were off to a good start. But then as always happens when you get too confident, Lory staged a fight back by winning three points in a row. Brian then played the second best point of the night to win the match with a stunning forehand loop and we were up and running with a 1-0 lead.

I took the the second match 3 sets to 1 to put us ahead 2-0.

The next match had my team mate Andrew Gilbert up against Ravi Ganapathy. Andrew had never beaten Ravi before but had always had close matches with him. I knew that if we could win this match, we would nearly be home as it would be tough for them to come back from 3-0. Andrew played a brilliant first set to lead 1-0. Ravi hit back taking the second. Then at 4 all in the fourth Andrew played the best shot of the night. Ravi had made a strong forehand loop into Andrew’s backhand. Andrew anticipated the direction of the shot and pivoted into position where he played a screaming forehand half volley topspin back across court for a clean winner. The crowd went up and Gilbert continued on to take the third set. The fourth set was a tight affair with Andrew taking an early lead only for Ravi to fight back and lead towards the end of the set. However the luck of the night was proving to be with us and Andrew played some good points to claim the match. We were up 3-0 and looking good.

I won the fourth match again 3 sets to 1 and we were now only 1 match away from claiming a berth in the final. Once the team gets on a roll, it is hard to stop and Brian Berry went on to beat Ravi for the first time in a long time and we had won 5-0. A completely unexpected result.

Next week we take on MSAC who have been undefeated for the whole season. It is going to be tough to beat them but with the form my team mates displayed last night I think we might be half a chance.