Bloods’ coach Craig Slocombe raises his bat after a well-made 95 in Springvale South’s DDCA grand final victory over Buckley Ridges. 62003Picture: Gavin Staindl
By Jarrod Potter
THE Dandenong and District Cricket Association (DDCA) play out their first round this Saturday, with a host of changes for all the teams in the Dandenong area.
Springvale South captured last year’s title with a second-innings victory over Buckley Ridges.
BUCKLEY RIDGES went through the season undefeated as they smashed the competition before losing the grand final to the Bloods.
The Ridges bowling attack inflicted many wounds, with four bowlers – Luke Fletcher, Westley Nicholas, Matthew Goodwright and Te Ahu Davis – taking more than 20 wickets and the team total of 113 leading the league.
Their batting was equally as savage, only losing 45 wickets for the season with Daniel Watson and Troy Aust, scoring 413 and 331 runs respectively.
“We’re looking to redeem last year’s loss,” coach Dennis Kruse said.
“We’ve lost five players from last year’s grand final side, so we’re starting off with a new base and it’ll be interesting.”
Of the outs for the Ridges, the season-ending knee injury to Ben Watson is the most disappointing for Kruse.
“Ben was looking really good in the pre-season training over winter, but that put an end to that,” Kruse said. “He was playing football at Poowong when it happened. Had about two or three games in seconds, was promoted to the firsts, two to three more games there, then in his third or fourth seniors game, he did the ACL.”
Ridges picked up two new imports to replace Luke Fletcher who has returned to England, with New Zealand pacement Jeremy Kuru and England-Pakistani player Asha Zardi among a sea of new faces.
“We’ve had 36 people at training this year, so a lot of new faces have shown up,” Kruse said.
“The oldest bloke in our side is 26, so they’re only going to get better with maturity.”
IN: Jeremy Kuru, Ashar Zaidi, Richie Hope.
OUT: Luke Fletcher, Paul Rudd, Shane D’Rozario, Trent Walker, Ben Watson.
EIGHTH-placed DANDENONG WEST is determined to move up the ladder, with the inclusion of new talent and retention of their best from last season.
Chandana Surige Don was effective as an all-rounder, scoring 203 runs at 29.00 and taking 17 wickets at 17.24. Greg Siwes was the best batsman for the Bulls, with 252 runs at 36.00. The bowlers were led by Peter Atkinson with 18 wickets at 18.33.
Definitely move up from eighth,” coach Nathan Goodes said. “We’re hoping to play finals.”
“Chandana is back for another season and Greg Siwes returns as well.”
The bowling options and depth for Dandenong West is strong, with the seconds standing as firm contenders for Turf Two.
“Any number of people could open the bowling,” Goodes said. “We’ve got quite a few bowling options this year, so we’re pretty happy with that.
“Definitely got some seconds players who look ready to play for the firsts.
“We’ve had a pretty good twos squad for a few years, and always been close to winning the seconds, but this year should change.”
IN: Richie Faust, Max Fielding, Josh Atkinson.
OUT: None.
THERE wasn’t much to smile about for KEYSBOROUGH last season, with two wins and six losses, but things are on the rise with the influx of new and returning players to boost ranks. Coach Andre Peters led the team’s batting statistics with 160 runs at 26.67 while the most wickets were taken by Jacob Hennigan, taking 20 at 15.05.
“We had a lot of injury problems last season,” Peters said.
“We look to be getting back on progress. If we stay injury free, and work on the things we had in the pre-season, I reckon we should be up there this year.”
Keysborough gains the services of Durham all-rounder Alex Deuchar and regains club stalwarts Mushy Perera and Mahesh Karunaratna.
“We get Mushy Perera back from Sri Lanka; he went back home for a couple of years, but now he’s back,” Peters said.
“Mahesh (Karunaratna) has come back as well.
“Now he has a new job and can come back to play as an opening batsman.”
Baden Saunders has been announced as captain.
IN: Alex Deuchar, Mushy Perera, Mahesh Karunaratna.
OUT: Harry Staude.
NORTH DANDENONG will look for new stats leaders this season with leading run-scorer Carman Mapatuna, 198 runs at 22.00, and wicket-taker Shane Smith, 11 wickets at 19.27, both significant outs for Norths.
It’s a different feel around the club,” co-coach Craig Gunawardana said. “Mainly this year is rebuilding and giving the young guys a go.
“We’re looking to get some good depth and experience in the ones.”
Shane Leonard and Janahan Kumaralingam will open the batting while Yuri Ryaboshapak and Glen Pepper sharing new ball duties.
Yuri has to be going close to the fastest bowler in the competition,” Gunawardana said. “He’d be around the 125km/h-130km/h mark when he’s up and going.”
Carman Mapatuna has left to go to Lyndale and Shane Smith is unable to play due to work commitments.
IN: None.
OUT: Carman Mapatuna, Adrian Bolt, Shane Smith.
PARKFIELD narrowly missed a grand final berth, squeezed out in the semi-finals by Springvale South who chased down 124 in 47 overs.
They were led from the front as coach Steven Spoljaric headed the runs scored and batting averages with 757 runs at 94.63, with a best of 184 against North Dandenong.
Spoljaric said the club wants to improve on last year’s semi-final finish with under-age players stepping up to earn spots in the turf one side.
“We have to hope we can do better,” Spoljaric said.
“There are a few changes to the side, but we haven’t actually got any new faces.
“Our 17s did well last year andwon their league so we’ve got someyoung kids coming through.” Spoljaric highlighted Trav D’Souza and JackJones, both under-age players who he thinks will perform when given an opportunity.
“Maybe have half a dozen 16-year-olds getting experience by the end of the season,” Spoljaric said.
“If you wait a few years, when there are no senior players left, they could get relegated, so we have to get them in now to help their development.”
Shane Doig will be a big omission from Parkfield this season, leaving the club for the time being due to personal reasons.
IN: None.
OUT: Shane Doig, Brad Baptist, Mark Butters.
SPRINGVALE SOUTH is in the hunt for back-to-back DDCA championships after beating Buckley Ridges for their first title since 2006/07.
Warren Ayres led the runs for the Bloods with 496 at 45.09, with grand final man-of-the-match Craig Slocombe finishing up on a season tally of 277. Timothy Ford was economical with the ball, taking 34 wickets at 9.68 to lead the bowlers’ tallies for the DDCA.
Coach Slocombe said the aim is to make the finals once more, and anything better on top is a bonus for the Bloods.
“To be honest, we just hope to make the top four and if we’re good enough we hope to win it again,” Slocombe said.
To support Ford in the pursuit of wickets will be Harry Staude, from Keysborough, and Suranjith Silva to return for another season.
“Tim Ford; we’re looking for another big year from him.
“(Dilon) Fernandez is pretty good, Harry Staude is as well and (Suranjith) Silva is coming back again so we should go well.
IN: Jim Boyd, Andrew McMannis, Harry Staude.
OUT: None.
