By Nick Creely
Disappointment reigned across the region on the weekend, with the Dandenong District Cricket Association forced to cancel the opening round’s turf clashes.
After a rain-soaked week, the DDCA made the call on Thursday to postpone the Round 1 fixtures to a later date in the season, just a week after also having to make a similar call as wet-weather continued to lash the state.
In good news, however, for cricket-starved fans, synthetic matches were able to get a start to their respective seasons, with A Grade, B Grade, C Grade, D Grade and E Grade action kicking off across the region.
Some highlights across the association included Farhan Hussain’s 53 and 2/13 in A Grade for Buckley Ridges, Charlie Johnson’s astonishing 7/8 for Beaconsfield in B Grade, Sampath Rathnayake spanking 53 for Victorian Vikings in C Grade, Dandenong West skipper Faizan Rahim’s 62 in D Grade, and Ryan Gains dominating with 75 for Berwick in E Grade.
Turf cricket will now move onto Round 2 fixtures on Saturday, with a Turf 1 grand final replay between Hallam Kalora Park and Berwick set to draw significant interest.
