By Jonty Ralphsmith
Who else but Nuwan Kulasekara to secure the first-up win for Dandenong West?
The club sought him – and fellow former Sri Lankan international Malinga Bandara – to help guide youngsters Dylan Diacono, Nathan Power and Bailey Howarth as much as the on-field boost.
After an elongated preseason where Kulasekara has helped instil professionalism and set the club up to rebound from turf two relegation last season, it was he who saved Dandy West blushes.
Needing 81 off their last 60 deliveries, the visitors looked no chance.
Diacono (45 off 91) had just departed and Kulasekara, for all his quality and experience, was three overs into his innings and had shown no signs of acceleration. He would need to go at a tick over eight an over for nine overs with just some late-order hitters to help him.
But his presence in the middle brought a sense of calm: with 242 international white-ball games under his belt, he knew how chases worked, that panic was the unnecessary antagonist.
Shaun Weir opened his account with a four and finished with three more boundaries, all sixes.
Kulasekara was content to turn the strike over to Weir, whose 27 off 18, set the match up for a thrilling climax.
The 40-year-old was joined in the middle by Howarth, the pair needing 29 from the final three overs.
Not long thereafter, Kulasekara went BANG BANG BANG.
From nowhere, he hit three sixes, over cow corner, mid on and mid off to chase down 213 with eight balls to spare.
“We always felt a chance,” said captain Anthony Brannan.
“We stuck to the plans in terms of giving ourselves the last 10 to chase 80.
“When I was batting with Dylan, we were hoping to get it to under 140 needed off the last 20. The plan was to get another 60 off the 20-30 part and then go as hard as we could at the end.
“We know we have firepower at the end so we can patch things up at the end but to do that effectively we need wickets in the shed so they aren’t coming in too early.
“Dylan did a really good job, the importance of his innings was that a couple of us could bat around Dylan and lift the run rate knowing we had him still at the crease.”
Earlier, an ominous partnership 141-run partnership off just 112 balls helped Coomoora pass 200 on a hard wicket.
After losing four early wickets, Coomoora 2021-22 leading runscorer Nick Suppree, and middle-order batter Dean Krelle went on the counterattack.
Coach Andrew O’Meara, out of ideas after a seemingly eternal preseason allowed his players to watch some of the England v New Zealand T20 World Cup semi-final and those two looked like they had taken notes on Jos Buttler and Alex Hales’ innings.
The pair hit through the line of the ball crisply and frequently, with players and spectators’ cars in danger at one end as they cleared the boundary with ease.
After taking down the pacemen, they pounced on spinners Weir and Mandara, rocking back on anything short and clobbering full tosses to and over the rope.
Suppree brought up his century, off just 79 balls, with an easy push into the offside from a Weir half-tracker, before he was caught on the mid-on rope the next ball he faced.
Dean Krelle departed for 62 off 61 almost immediately after, with the pair hitting 25 boundaries between them.
“We learnt a little bit in terms of the combinations we had bowling, we probably went too similar from both ends at certain times so we’ll look to change that,” Brannan said.
The return of Sheean and subsequent dismissals applied the brakes to the Coomoora innings, as they managed just 17 runs after the 33rd over, with Kulesekara’s changeups helping him to two late wickets after one in a strong opening spell, and quickie Adam Reid was on a hattrick at one stage.
It was the first time the arch-rivals’ first XI had met since 12 January 2008, just Dandy West’s Weir and captain Anthony Brannan remaining from that game.
OTHER MATCHES
Lynbrook defeated Hampton Park by 48 runs.
MATCH SUMMARY: a 94-run opening partnership led by Jay Walia, who finished with 75, set up the visitors innings. Suneet Nambiar, Ryan Lowe and Devanandh Chandrasekar all passed 20 to help Lynbrook to 8/177. In pursuit, several Hampton Park batters got starts, but no-one was able to anchor the innings, Faridullah Khil’s 33 being the highest score of the innings. Jesse Walia got four crucial wickets in his six overs.
Springvale defeated Silverton by six wickets, with 42 balls to spare.
MATCH SUMMARY: Silverton chose to bat against a team seen as among the strongest in the competition, with opener Robert North seeing it well and helping himself to 94. Harmandip Sahota claimed three wickets, as Springy was set 174 to win. A 90 to Nuwan Mendis guided the chase, with contributions of 30 from Pasindu Madushan and Radomir Badzoka.
Fountain Gate defeated Berwick Springs by six wickets with 58 balls to spare.
MATCH SUMMARY: sent in to bat in their first match since the turf four premiership, Berwick Springs was steady but ultimately unable to establish a partnership to propel the innings and score runs efficiently. Hasindu Waduge was the pick of the Fountain Gate bowlers with 4/22 off seven overs. Fountain Gate lost two early wickets in quick succession to give Berwick Springs a sniff, before a 55-run partnership between opener Karan Singh (31) and Rodni Kumara (50 not out) helped them to victory.
