By JARROD POTTER
DDCA TURF 1 – ROUND 4 REVIEW (DAY 1)
SLIPPING the noose after some early headaches, Springvale South (206) powered on to register a double-century mountain for Narre Warren (1/9) to climb.
SPRINGVALE SOUTH v NARRE WARREN
The Magpies surged early to leave the hosts in a world of hurt at 3/54 after losing former Test cricketer Michael Vandort (18).
Pushing himself up the order when the chips were down, captain Craig Slocombe (53) combined with Dylan Quirk (36) to see off the worst of Narre spearhead Kaushayla Weeraratne (4/56). Their 56-run stand changed the dynamic and allowed Quirk to get the run-rate going with Jackson Sketcher (22) and Jarryd Armitage (39). Quirk’s gutsy knock was brought to an end by Narre’s Sri Lankan spinner Janaka Liyanabadalge (2/81) in his DDCA debut.
Armitage (1/4) had one last trick up his sleeve, dismissing Magpies opener Wendall Perumal (4) late in the day to give the Bloods the upper hand.
MORDIALLOC v NORTH DANDENONG
Mordialloc (155) was kept to a very uncustomary middling total after some superb work from North Dandenong (6/35) … at least with the ball.
Michael de Kauwe (5/62) and Musa Amin (2/33) set about carving up the Bloodhounds, but found resistance in strange places.
Damith Ralalage (45) anchored the innings along with number 10 Jakob Woinarski (24 not out) to rescue the flagging Mordialloc effort after falling to 8/89. The Northerners could not inflict the killshot as Ralalage pushed the tally along before his time came to an end via Amin.
North Dandenong’s batting effort was in stark contrast to its bowling, falling to a ruthless Chathura Athukorala (3/9) spell late in the day. Zafar Sheikh (9 not out) was left to watch on as the innings crumbled around him, with the visitors left to pick up the pieces with 120 runs left to get on the second day with a measly four tail-end wickets in the shed.
BUCKLEY RIDGES v PARKFIELD
Parkfield (61 and 3/40) was punished badly by an up-tempo Buckley Ridges (5/191dec) hell-bent on leaping back into the Turf 1 top-four.
Dan Watson didn’t even need to bowl himself as his Ridges’ attack was too potent for the visitors anyway; Susantha Pradeep (5/24) and Hussain Ali (3/19) brutalised the Bears in only 32 overs. From there Buckley went the smack about at the postage stamp known as Park Oval, with Pradeep (68) all but guaranteeing himself three votes with a sensational hitting effort alongside Watson (43) and Cal O’Hare (37 not out).
The declaration came after 34 overs of Parkfield fielding misery at nearly a run-a-ball. Kunal Kapoor (2/12) snared two at-the-death scalps to leave Parkfield 90 short of an outright innings defeat.
