By JARROD POTTER
VSDCA – round 9 (one day)
THE long voyage out west paid dividends for Noble Park (6/168), with the Bulls taking a narrow victory over Sunshine (152).
Batting first, Noble Park anchored around Marasinghe Perera (54) with the number three gaining strong assistance down the order from Mevan Fernando (31). A few starts weren’t capitalised upon by the Bulls, with captain Dean Edmunds (15) and Johan Vorster (16) unable to kick on, leaving Noble Park in the no-man’s land between 150 and 200 for a 45-over chase.
The Noble Park bowlers took that tally and made it work as once again the Bulls’ bowling maestro Rizan Mawzoon (5/25) made sure there wouldn’t be a successful Sunshine chase. Troy Stone (71 not out) was the only Sunshine batsman to hold his ground as Mawzoon, Perera (2/28) and Anthony Salomon (2/35) ran through the order. The developing partnership of Stone and David Bonavia (27) was destroyed when Perera found Bonavia plumb in front to stop the 61-run partnership. From there on everyone chipped in to rattle through the tail to leave Sunshine 16 short.
Noble Park betters its record to 6-0-3 and holds down fourth on the VSDCA East/West 1st XI ladder, with the challenge this coming round put to them by Yarraville at Pat Wright Senior Oval.
