By JARROD POTTER
WOMEN’S VICTORIAN PREMIER CRICKET – ROUND 20
ONE run.
The cruel nature of cricket reared its head last Sunday as the Dandenong Lions Women’s Cricket Club (189) fell in its pursuit of finals by a solitary score against Box Hill (9/189).
A resurgent end to the season – taking two massive wins leading up to the match – gave the Lions the must-win opportunity against the fourth placed Mustangs to sneak into the Premier Cricket semi-finals.
Chelsea Moscript (4/34) excelled with the ball, rattling off the Mustangs’ top order to keep the chase below 200.
It was going to plan as well, as the opening partnership from Sarah Elliott (33) and Erica Kershaw (27) saw off the shine. Their knock was followed up by the skipper Kelly Applebee (49) and Moscript (46) and the Lions looked likely to canter home at 2/173 with nine overs left.
Applebee and Moscript fell quickly and from there Dandenong’s order spun out of control against Bella Gietzmann (4/21) and Cass Brock (4/46).
They put Dandenong on the back foot and then some, taking a bag of wickets for a pittance as Dandenong, with only three runs to get, lost 6/2 in a disastrous collapse.
With scores level after Shiromi Wijeratne’s (0) dismissal, the sides split the points to give Box Hill the ticket to the finals.
“We set ourselves up into a really good position – I don’t know if you can explain what happened … it was a little bit like a train wreck,” Applebee said.
“It’s difficult to assess a season on the last game but it’s an extremely disappointing result.
“To get so close and in an interesting game we had a lot of ups and downs and didn’t play our best cricket … there were some good periods of the game and put ourselves in a winning position but cricket’s a funny game isn’t it?”
Applebee was impressed with the way the Lions persevered through a tough season, with Women’s Big Bash and other competitions leaving the side decimated at times.
If the side can stick together for the next few seasons, the skipper has no doubt Dandenong will feature prominently in the Premier Cricket finals.
“I was really proud of the girls to get to that point but extremely disappointed for the club not to be playing finals this weekend,” Applebee said.
“The thing I said to the girls afterwards was we needed to win the last three games to make finals and needed to get a bonus point in one of those last three and we put ourselves in a position to do that.
“I definitely think we’ve got the team that not only could make finals, but definitely win it as well.
“If we can keep this group together for the next four or five years, I have no doubt we’ll be involved in finals and winning premierships – which is what we want to achieve.”
