By JARROD POTTER
VSDCA – South East 1st XI
Round 1, Day One
GOOD but not great would be the verdict of Noble Park’s (188) first outing in its Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association (VSDCA) premiership defence.
Squaring off against Malvern in picturesque scenes at Pat Wright Senior Oval, Noble Park started sluggishly as new recruit Andrew O’Meara (0) had a debut worth forgetting as he played around a straightener from Tim Arbon. The best partnership of the day would form next as Sanjeewa de Silva (44) and Marasinghe Perera (24) combined to add 62 for the second wicket.
De Silva was the best with the blade as he deposited a couple of straight slogs past the scoreboard end fence. Both were dismissed in rapid succession by Nick Gill, leaving the rest of the order to generally fail to thrive.
From there the effort was average as players set themselves before getting out in or around the 20s en masse.
Newly appointed captain Paul Hill (16) – who switched from DDCA Turf 1 club Coomoora in the off-season, Mevan Fernando (24), Jake Richardson (23) and Dirk Vanderger (20) had a chance to push on with the tally, but failed to advance towards the half-century or beyond that was up for grabs in stellar conditions at Moodemere Street.
The Bulls were curtailed by Malvern trio Tim Arbon (4/53), Michael Jones (3/26) and Nick Gill (3/40) to leave the Noble Park total at 188 from 79.3 overs.
With the bowling attack boosted by the return of Premier bowler Ash Perera, it is however a defendable target.
Resumption of play is Saturday at 1pm.
