By JARROD POTTER
Dandenong District Cricket Association – round 8 (one day)
THE last DDCA one-dayers went off with a bang as anyone from second to seventh could squeeze into finals.
North Dandenong v Hallam Kalora Park
Hallam Kalora Park (147) could not fight back the renewed and invigorated North Dandenong (6/148), with the Northerners taking their fifth win in a row.
Economical bowling from New Zealand import Jurgen Andersen (3/9) left Hallam on the ropes before the one-two punch of Glen Pepper (2/40) and Clay McCartney (2/9) finished off the rest, leaving a moderate chase at Lois Twohig Reserve.
Starting strongly via George Russell (21), North Dandenong’s openers soon departed and left the job to Craig Gunawardana (65 not out). With support from Dean Gunawardana (16), Andersen (16) and Shane Clark (10 not out), the home side eked out a four-wicket victory with an over to spare.
It leaves the Northerners in the strange predicament of having more wins than four of the five teams above them, yet they remain in sixth on account of outright victories and draws.
Narre Warren v Buckley Ridges
Posting 81 won’t usually get a team six points, but somehow Buckley Ridges (81) pulled it out of the bag with a quick dismissal of Narre Warren (75). The Buckley top-order resembled a children’s counting book – Luke Fletcher (1), B. Watson (0), Antonio Greenidge (93), Dan Haasbroek (0) and Suren Ekanayake (3) equalled 5/10 following devastating spells from Kaushalya Weeraratne (3/20) and Jarryd Straker (4/12). It left the lion-share of the work to one man and he was injured at that. Batting with a runner, the only man to stand up and create accountability was Paul Rudd (32 not out) who batted through the innings to grant the Ridges something to defend. In reply, Fletcher (3/15) and Jeremy Kuru (4/20) ran through the Magpies’ order in only 23.3 overs. Weeraratne (20) and Pramod Liyanagamage (28) were the only fighting Narre batsmen as the Ridges stormed to victory by five runs in an amazing low-scoring encounter.
Buckley Ridges sits fifth, only separated by percentage to the top four.
Coomoora v Lyndale
Coomoora (121) couldn’t match pace with Lyndale – mainly its star all-rounder Jaime Brohier.
Brohier did it all and is now one of the front-runners for the Wookey Medal following a 4/21 performance with the ball to remove Coomoora on the cheap before chasing the runs down with seven overs to spare in his 73 not out. Rahoul Pankania (31) and Lance Baptist (27) helped push the Kangaroos to their tally with an over left in the ledger. From there the match belonged to Brohier as he found partnerships with Dale Tormey (21) and Ciaron Connolly (16 not out) to secure an emphatic eight-wicket win and gain valuable percentage in a tight race for finals.
Lyndale sits third, three behind Mordialloc and in the pack of contenders all the way to seventh.
Berwick v Parkfield
Berwick’s (3/196) Sri Lankan connection made the first dent in Parkfield (8/192) this year, despite the best efforts of Suren Gallage (82). David Ford (30) was first to get into gear for the Bears as did Jarrod Williamson (22). Steve Spoljaric (13) couldn’t repeat his efforts of last week, leaving the scoring initiative up to Gallage. Gallage batted with the tail to post a difficult chase for Berwick. Thilan Samaraweera (41), Gavan Wills (21) opened the scoring before falling to Shane Bell (1/32) and Matt Aslett (1/50) respectively. The match-winning 109-run partnership came from Bathiya Perera (60 not out) and Nirmal Wickramaratne (46 not out) as Berwick kept its finals hopes alive at the expense of Parkfield’s unbeaten season to date.
Springvale South versus Dandenong West was held on Sunday after the Dandenong Journal went to print.
