Noble Park mounts defence

By Paul Pickering
DESPITE posting a formidable one-day total of 8/207, Noble Park was unable to conjure a win against Mount Waverley in their Victorian Sub District Cricket Association match on Saturday.
Batting first, Karl Brown set about single-handedly destroying the Mount Waverley attack, smashing 54 runs off 57 deliveries.
His dismissal saw the Parkers at 3/76, with Andrew O’Meara (6) and Rod Douthie (7) preceding Brown to the pavilion.
Dean Edmunds and Paul Hill had added 71 runs for the fourth wicket before Edmunds was caught for 41.
Andrew Brown (10), Sanj Weerasinghe (8) and Hill (42) were dismissed within six overs to have Noble Park 7/179 in the 42nd over.
Lance Baptist and Michael Todd added 25 runs in the last three overs to see the total pass 200, finishing on 8/206 as Todd (7) was dismissed in the last over with Baptist unbeaten on 23.
Noble Park’s defence of the total got off to the best start possible as Matt Crozier dismissed Craig Ferguson and Robbie Bartlett with only 14 runs on the board.
From there it was hard going, with steady partnerships by the Mt Waverley batsmen seeing the total climb towards the target.
Mount Waverley eventually passed the score in the 44th over with the loss of six wickets.
Crozier was the best of the bowlers, finishing with 3/42, while Douthie picked up 2/36.
The second XI was unable to defend the first week’s total of 121, with Mount Waverley reaching 5/193 after resuming at 3/24.
The two wickets fell to Kim Fitzpatrick and Andrew Love.
Meanwhile, the thirds won a thriller, restricting Mount Waverley to 9/183 in reply to Noble Park’s total of 8/185.
The match was in the balance right up to the last ball, with Kush Athukorala conceding only three runs in a tense final over.
Andrew Dennis got the early breakthrough to finish with 3/37, while leg-spinner Stuart Patterson bowled a great spell to take 2/38.
It was a great effort by a team that had six juniors in the side.
The fourth XI went down to Mt Waverley, reaching 8/75 in pursuit of 9/151. Chris Lee top-scored with 21 in the Noble Park innings and Matt Ferguson (3/21) and Jason William (2/13) were the best of the bowlers.