By JARROD POTTER
Dandenong District Cricket Association Turf 1 – round 10 (week one)
IT ALL boiled down on Saturday – with the match of the round the likely wooden-spoon showdown between Coomoora and Narre Warren.
COOMOORA v NARRE WARREN
FIGHTING for their lives in the top tier, Coomoora restricted the Narre Warren (152) tally through some handy off-spin. The Magpies had gutsy input early from David Wheeler and Shaun Van Dam, but the wheels fell off their innings as Rob Johnston (5/44) started spinning circles around the Magpies. The Kangaroos’ offie (Johnston) toiled in the heat but reaped great rewards for his efforts. Johnston beguiled half the Narre Warren batting card en route to his third five-wicket haul of the season and left Narre Warren with a middling score of 152 to defend. With Johnston keeping the Magpies bogged down from the Dandenong Bypass end, with his 24 overs featuring 10 maidens, the pavilion end duties were left up to Chris Konings (2/21), who made the early breakthroughs at the top of the Narre order, and Joseph Hawke (2/18). Luke Vincent (0 not out) and Rahoul Pankhania (6 not out) survived the last six overs of the day unscathed to give the Kangaroos a hopefully much cooler chase next week.
PARKFIELD v BUCKLEY RIDGES
TOP order toiling from Buckley Ridges (241) has made next week a lot more challenging than usual for ladder-leading Parkfield (1/2). Simon Fonceca (69) and Paul Rudd (28) added 54 for the first wicket before Rudd was trapped in front. It left the scoring duties to Fonceca, Antonio Greenidge (24) and Dan Haasbroek (35). The top order burdened most of the scoring before the middle and lower order got in and got out as quickly. Captain Matt Goodwright (16) pushed a few more runs into the ledger as the Bears ran through the Ridges’ tail. It would not pay dividends for Parkfield as the home side lost a wicket to Ridges opening bowler Jeremy Kuru (1/2) in the final over of the day.
NORTH DANDENONG v SPRINGVALE SOUTH
While the top order fell away sharply, Springvale South (8/245) found another avenue to a top-total with import all-rounder Ruwantha Kellepotha (113 not out) dominating the North Dandenong attack.
The Northerners would have been happy with the early going against the Bloods – taking five wickets on the cheap. Springvale South sweated its way down to the middle order at 5/45 following Ryan Quirk (12) falling to Jurgen Andersen (2/47). Musa Amin (2/24) also claimed early wickets to put the onus on Kellepotha and the lower order. Seemingly unfazed by the extreme heat, Kellepotha chalked up the ones and twos along with 13 boundaries as everyone in the lower order committed to his cause. Jackson Sketcher (25), Yoshan Kumara (20), Liam Hamilton (15) and a gutsy not out effort from Mitchell Forsyth (28 not out) all devoted their time to keeping the Bloods at the crease and put the top order batsmen to shame. Michael de Kauwe (2/60) also chipped in for a couple of tail-end wickets, but the match was slowly slipping from the home side’s fingers as Kellepotha would raise the bat on his first DDCA century. It leaves a lot for North Dandenong to do next week, especially against Springvale South’s sharp bowling attack.
DANDENONG WEST v LYNDALE
A little bit from everyone made the Dandenong West (8/284) batting card sing against Lyndale. Rotating their scoreboard duties in the heat, the Bulls started strongly through Walid Ghauri (45) and Matt Fielding (50) – with the latter smashing five fours and three sixes en route to the half century. Lyndale struck back through Tharanga Lakshita (4/55) and Liam Mara (2/78) but after the top order returned to the sheds the second wind came for Dandenong West via its long tail.
Adam Mason (50 not out) was the unbeaten man at stumps – notching his half-century with assistance from Justin Stanton (25), Greg Siwes (35) and Shaun Weir (28) to frustrate Lyndale and keep them out til the final ball of the day.
