Lions take charge

Sarah Elliott was at her inventive best, racing to 46 in Dandenong's Twenty20 win over Essendon Maribyrnong Park. 112303 Pictures: JARROD POTTER

By JARROD POTTER

Victorian Women’s Cricket Association – round 10

THE Lions’ roared to a VWCA Twenty20 win at home on Saturday via the dab hands of Sarah Elliott and Kelly Applebee.
In their clash with Essendon Maribyrnong Park (EMP), Dandenong didn’t get off to the strongest start – with Erica Kershaw (4) chopping on at 1/18.
It brought together captain Applebee and Elliott, leaving the Victorian representative pair to go about business as usual.
Going at run-a-ball throughout the middle overs, the pair rotated the strike and soaked up the environment – playing out of their crease, flaying cuts and pulls square of the wicket.
The most audacious shot belonged to Elliott – hitting a ramp-shot to register the 50-run partnership between the top order Lions.
Elliott would fall chasing last-ditch runs – attempting an overly ambitious second single to get herself run out on 46.
Applebee (40no) and Laura Croft (8) would knocked the final runs in the ledger and set a challenging 3/106 to chase.
EMP’s chase got off to a bad start as run-outs and poor decision making had the innings at a stand-still. Stabilising the innings was Emily McIntyre (44) – bludgeoning the innings of the day as she flayed five boundaries around Greaves Reserve.
Eventually some nimble work from Chelsea Moscript would have McIntyre run-out, leaving too much for the tail to achieve as EMP finished 7/91 from its 20 overs. Julie Hunter (1/7), Alana King (1/10) and Moscript (1/17) were the best of the bowlers.
In the Lions seconds, Twenty20, Dandenong could only muster 4/71 before EMP chased it down with four balls to spare.