By JARROD POTTER
NARY has there been any love lost between Noble Park and Endeavour Hills in Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association (VSDCA) action, with the Eagles swooping on the Bulls to leave a 200-run chase this week-end.
Noble Park struggled to build critical partnerships and worse still, no one was able to carry on after a start.
Captain Dean Edmunds (21), Chanaka Gunawardana (25), Marasinghe Perera (32) and Dhanushka Ekanayake (39) will all wonder what if, had they continued on after getting their eyes in.
Endeavour Hills captain Matt Hutchinson (1/16) rotated his five bowlers about to great effect as Richard Saniga (3/31) followed up his unbeaten century last week with the middle order scalps of Perera, Mevan Fernando (13) and Jake Richardson (2).
Wickets fell far too regularly for the Bulls – with their biggest partnership earning 41 runs between Dirk Vandergert (16) and Ekanayake (39) from the eighth wicket stand. Ekanayake, Andrew Berman (18no) and Anthony Salomon (7) helped the tail wag to push Noble Park to 199 from 69.5 overs.
Getting among the scalps for the Eagles were Chris Periera (2/47) and Shane Peake (2/52) keeping the Bulls from mounting a big tally.
From the remaining 12 overs of the day, Noble Park made their task next week one-wicket easier as Justin Merlino (2) was skittled by Salomon (1/6) from his six overs. It left Eagles’ pair Jarrod Russell (6no) and Nick Cigetic (5no) at the crease for this week’s resumption of play.
