By Lachlan Mitchell
You’d be hard-pressed to find a more complete performance than Triyan De Silva’s masterclass with ball and bat.
The left-arm all-rounder was the cornerstone of guiding Heinz Southern Districts (HSD) into a DDCA Turf-2 grand final on Saturday.
The quick was damaging with the ball, taking 5/35, to help dismiss ladder-leaders Cranbourne for 184.
Triyan would then have been hoping he wasn’t required at all with the bat.
But HSD collapsed and the all-rounder was injected in, with the score reading 3/6 and with the curtains closing on his side’s innings.
De Silva combined with Kevin Seth to put on a 157-run partnership to see his side home with four overs to spare.
HSD finished the season in fourth spot after stringing a few-late season wins together.
“We knew if we made finals, we were only two wins away from a grand-final,” De Silva said.
“It’s one day cricket and you can win or lose a game in 10 overs and your season doesn’t really matter when you get to finals.”
Cranbourne won the toss and elected to bat which didn’t faze the underdogs.
“Our plan was to bowl first anyway, so it worked out in our favour,” he said.
Triyan and recently awarded Gartside medallist Peter Sweeney have had a long history together, dating back to their premier cricket days for Dandenong.
Sweeney was dismissed by Triyan for 80.
“It was good to get Pete out, he has had one of the best seasons anyone has ever had in the DDCA,” he said.
Heinz restricted Cranbourne to 184.
The HSD batting line-up has been prone to collapse throughout the season.
“When Brent (Patterson) and Liam Jansen were out we thought it was panic stations,” De Silva said.
“When the score dropped to 2/6…we are known to have a few batting collapses.
“Once Kevin (Seth) was in, we knew that if we were still in the 40th over, we are either going to win it or we are going to put us in a really good chance to win. We didn’t really worry about the scoreboard, if we are here in the 40th over anything can happen.”
Triyan has been no mug with the willow averaging 36.
The left-arm all-rounder highest score of 83 came against Parkfield in round four.
The batting conditions at Casey were pristine from a batting perspective.
“We never really struggled to make runs, it was coming on to the bat,” he said.
Triyan ended the day on 106 off 88 balls which included 13 fours.
“I didn’t really felt like I batted that long, I tried to pick up the singles and hit the bad balls for four.”
