By Marcus Uhe
Springvale South finger spinner Jarryd Straker’s efforts with the ball saw the Bloods finish one wicket short from claiming an outright win over St Mary’s in the DDCA’s Turf 1 competition.
The accurate linchpin of the Springvale South attack, Straker left Alex Nelson Reserve on Sunday night with ludicrous match figures of 11/40 from 36 overs, with 22 maidens thrown in just for good measure.
He claimed 6/15 in the first innings to help rein in a fast start from St Mary’s and bowl the visitors out for just 103 on the first day, before sharing the new ball with Josh Dowling on the second and bowling through the entire second innings to capture 5/25, as the Saints final wicket partnership spared them from a humiliating outright loss.
Saints opening pair Sarfaras Moahomad and Raveen Nanayakkara took the attack to the reigning premiers with a powerful 61-run opening stand but the wicket of Moahomad proved the beginning of the end for the first batting innings.
Hurried by a short ball, he offered a simple return catch to Dowling in his follow through to depart for 38, and he was joined by his opening partner shortly later for the same score when his attempt to hit Jackson Sketcher out of Alex Nelson Reserve proved unsuccessful.
Nanayakkara perished with the score on 81, and his teammates could only add another 22 runs between them before taking to the field.
At 2/0 after three deliveries thanks to the wickets of Mitch Forysth and Jordan Mackenzie for ducks, the Bloods made a far from ideal start to the chase, but experienced heads of Jordan Wyatt and Ryan Quirk provided the stability with a 66 run stand, Quirk’s first hit since the 2022/23 semi final against Buckley Ridges.
Contributions from Wyatt (41), Blade Baxter (35), Yoshan Kumara (31) Jackson Sketcher (36) and Paul Hill (28) pushed the home side to 7/210 by stumps on day one, before declaring immediately on day two with a lead of 110 and an outright victory in their sights.
With the new ball in hand, Straker ran right through St Mary’s top order, claiming the first four wickets with the Bloods on the charge.
Only skipper Susantha Pradeep made it to double figures in the Saints’ top order as it crumbled, before Sketcher took three in an over to further heap the misery.
The resistance of Michael Dudley and Toby Wilson for the tenth wicket ensured the Saints’ blushings would be spared, with Dudley facing 80 deliveries for his 20 and Wilson 29 for his five, as play finished with St Mary’s on 9/100, seven runs shy from making the Bloods bad once more.
At Perc Allison Reserve, Beaconsfield will wonder ‘what could have been?’ for Mark Cooper’s precocious young side.
Just the eight overs were played on Sunday between a series of thwarted starts, but the Tigers were making their presence felt.
Beginning the day on 3/27, Buckley Ridges fell to 5/42 on Sunday afternoon before the game was scrapped, with Buckley needing a further 87 to win.
Former Buckley Ridges junior Trishane De Silva had the visitors wobbling with the key wickets of Jayson Hobbs and Ben Wright in the space of three deliveries, his left arm seam bowling from around the wicket causing Buckley’s right handers problems in the wet.
Needing to defend just 128, Beaconsfield had the upper hand when play was called, just as Roshen Silva made his much-anticipated arrival at the crease.
Yohan Arumadura led the way with the bat for Beaconsfield with 45 on Saturday before becoming the first of Hussain Ali’s three victims.
The Buckley bowlers offered nothing to the Tigers bats but a number of dropped chances, including from Sanka Dinesh, Michael Davies and Jake Cronin, allowed the Tigers a handful of lives.
Englishman James Anson was excellent on debut for Buckley Ridges, joining Ali with three wickets from his seam bowling, while Ashan Madushanka and Kevin Seth were the only two batters to join Arumadura in double figures.
Making the most of 13 overs to bowl before stumps on day one, Beaconsfield made serious inroads to leave the hosts in a worrying position at the close of play.
Mudashanka had Cronin adjudged LBW for just eight, while De Silva picked up the key wickets of Davies and Zafar Sheikh.
The much-anticipated return of two day cricket will be forced to wait at least another round for most sides, with only half the matches progressing on the second day due to classic October wintry weather.
Narre South’s chase of North Dandenong’s 228 shaped as a fascinating challenge for both sides but play was abandoned on Sunday morning after the Lois Twohig outfield bore the brunt of overnight and morning rain.
Muhammad Dawa Khan top scored with 52 for the Maroons who lost regular wickets on their way to 228 from 71 overs on Saturday, Tahsinullah Sultani (42) and Imran Laghmani (36) their other main contributors.
Jeevan Mendis grabbed 2/85 from his 19 overs but was uncharacteristically expensive at an economy rate of 4.47.
The Lions had to navigate a tricky 10 over spell before stumps on Saturday with Vineth Jayasuriya unable to survive, falling to Sushant Gupta in the fourth over for just four.
Jawed Hussaini was called upon as a night-watchman and partnered Kyle Hardy to the close of play, where they finished 1/19 before weather denied their chance of taking the field on Sunday, seeing the points shared in a draw.
Likewise, the tension of a gripping final half-hour of day one at Arch Brown Reserve in Berwick’s clash with Hallam Kalora Park was unrewarded as not a single ball was bowled on Sunday.
The contest could hardly have been more evenly poised, the Bears sitting on 1/11 in pursuit of Hallam Kalora Park’s 189.
The Hawks trio of Jordan Hammond, Charith Keerthisinghe and William Whyte finished the evening with five consecutive maidens after Whyte had Matthew Hague caught at slip by Jagveer Hayer at the end of the fourth over for nine.
Too much had been left to too few in the Hawks’ batting innings, as Leigh Booth (40), Mahela Udawatte (40) and Hammond (54) combined to score 70 percent of the side’s runs.
The spinning combination of Lachlan Brown and Hague proved effective in getting through the Hawks’ lower order after captain Jarrod Goodes removed both openers earlier in the afternoon.
The spinners were relentless with their accuracy, not allowing any width or scoring opportunities and forcing catching opportunities in-turn.
Kevin Kean and Lauchlan Gregson offered easy catches to Bears fielders while Ciaron Connolly simply couldn’t settle, hit on the pads multiple times before feathering a catch to Jordan Cleland behind the stumps.
Brown finished with 4/36 from his 18 overs and Goodes 3/23 from 13.
