By Jonty Ralphsmith
A surprise win over third-placed Lyndale has lifted Keysborough off the bottom of the table and kept the pressure on Lyndale to find another win to secure a finals berth.
The match had an eerie symmetry to the Cranbourne v Narre Warren bout – except, on this occasion, it was won by the team batting first, Keysborough.
At the halfway point, Lyndale looked well on top, restricting Keysborough to 9-183 on a batter-friendly Rowley Allan Reserve.
11 overs later, when opener Satnam Singh was dismissed for a 54-run blitz and the scorecard read 3-79, the Knights looked completely dead and buried.
With Girish Chopra controlling the innings on his departure, the visitors still looked on top, despite a flow of wickets up the other end.
When the scorecard read 6-165 with Chopra and Farazur Rahman (22) finding runs easily in a 58-run partnership, a Lyndale win looked a fait accompli.
Even once Rahman was dismissed, Lyndale still felt on top, until back-to-back wickets to captain and talisman Christo Otto not only got the hosts back into it, but put them on the front foot.
Otto bravely looped a ball up to Chopra, the set batter and drew the top edge, before sending down a straight one which Dimuthu Weerasinghe missed.
Lyndale still needed nine runs from the last wicket and with the field in and energy up, scoring became difficult.
Yohan Arumadura clinched it dismissing captain Ben Montgomery LBW in the first ball of the 38th over.
“We just had to stick to our plans and not worry too much about him because he was batting pretty well,” said Otto.
“Luckily for us, a few of them gave their wickets away which brought us back into the game.
“We know what they bat like, you’re always in the game with them because they’re very aggressive so we had to take the chances when they came, which we mostly did.
“It’s relief for now but it’s not over yet.
“We were ecstatic, we knew how important the game was, if we drop that it would made the last two very hard.
“Those close ones don’t generally go in our favour so it is nice to win a close one.”
Earlier, Otto was the protagonist of the first half of the Keysborough innings, scoring 62 off 79 as he played the home conditions well and set the platform.
Pressure fell on the lower order after he was dismissed, with Keysborough still well short of par when Otto was dismissed.
Tobey Harkin, Jackson O’Brien and Hennadige Fernando each played cameos to help Keysy to a total which ultimately proved defendable.
While away from relegation for now, Keysborough is by no means safe, as bottom-placed Doveton has proven competitive this season and still has winnable games on the horizon.
Even if both teams have the same number of wins from their last two, Keysborough may slip back down to eighth, given the tightness of their percentage.
Underlining the closeness of the Turf 2 season, just two-and-a-half wins separate third-placed Lyndale from Doveton at the foot.
