With the Dandenong District Cricket Association set to begin from 8 October, Turf 2 reporter JONTY RALPHSMITH has taken a deep look at how each club is tracking…
Lyndale
2021-22 result: sixth on the ladder with five wins in an up-and-down season. By beating runners-up Heinz Southern Districts in the final round of the home and away season and also getting over the top of Parkmore earlier in the season, Lyndale showed it could compete well on its day, but disappointing performances, such as losses to Keysborough and Beaconsfield punctuated the promise.
2021-22 leading runscorer: Himesh Don Galhenage (249 runs at 21, one 50)
2021-22 leading wicket-taker: Rajika Fernando (22 wickets at 18, ER 3.39)
Preview: Despite last season’s result, Lyndale is bullish about some emerging talent after winning the reserves premiership from fourth position. With many of the club’s top-order batters from last season being aggressive strokemakers, captain Ben Montgomery has the task of rejigging the order to suit two-day cricket. Rohan Dixit (236 runs at 35 in turf two reserves) is a player whose patience in the middle could see him play turf two. A key focus of preseason was instilling discipline and technique into the batters as Lyndale looks to bat out its overs consistently. From a bowling perspective, much of the spinning workload will fall onto young Sri Lankan recruit Suranga Wijewardena after the departure of namesake Chanaka. The club also lacks an opening bowler with firepower as it was reliant and will again be reliant on medium pacers getting movement off the pitch and remaining disciplined to keep games under control.
