Above: Noble Park’s Andy O’Meara advances down the wicket only to be bowled by Endeavour Hills playing coach Ben Maroney on Saturday.NOBLE Park’s finals hopes in the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association (VSDCA) all but disappeared when it went down to Endeavour Hills on Saturday.
After being sent in, the Noble Park top order crumbled to be 6/84, with only Karl Brown showing any form, reaching 49 before being run out.
Andrew Brown (35), Sanj Weerasinghe (25) and Lance Baptist (17) ensured the side reached 155.
Opening bowlers Lance Baptist and Shane Smith got the early breakthrough Noble Park required and when Dean Edmunds and Karl Brown picked up wickets in their first overs Endeavour Hills was 4/34.
An 81-run stand saw the visitors reach 115 before Sanj Weerasinghe picked up the first of his three wickets.
His next two saw the score at 7/145.
Rod Douthie picked up the eighth wicket and when Shane Smith and Andrew Brown combined for a run out, Noble Park needed one wicket and Endeavour Hills seven runs.
Some tension-packed overs – in which a tough chance was missed – saw the visitors creep to victory, Weerasinghe finishing with 3/51 off his nine overs.
Meanwhile, the second XI successfully chased Endeavour Hills’ total of 9/193 to win by three wickets.
The Endeavour Hills innings was memorable for a Mark Rendle hat-trick in his first game for the season.
Rendle finished with 3/34, with Andrew Berman (2/24) and Dave Parker (2/22) providing support.
It was a consistent performance with the bat, with Dane Rogers (32), Ben Carmody (26), Geoff Richardson (22) and Mark Rendle (22) all getting starts before victory came in the 42nd over.
The thirds nearly snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, losing 6/29 to go from 3/82 to 9/111 in reply to Endeavour Hills’ 122.
Fortunately, Andrew Dennis and Carlos Peregin were able to stay together to see the side through to its fourth win of the season.
Deepjot Singh took 4/31, with Andrew Dennis (2/8) and Andrew Parker (2/42) the other multiple wicket-takers.
Chris Lee top-scored with 35 in the Noble Park innings.
The fourth XI also recorded a good victory, dismissing Endeavour Hills for 128.
Kush Athukorala took 3/16, while Michael Fox (2/42) and Nathan Scouler (2/3) also chipped in with the ball.
The side cruised to victory with five overs to spare after the loss of five wickets.
Fox top-scored with an unbeaten 40 and Justin Hart (36) and Praveen Jaiswar (23) also got among the runs.
