By Marcus Uhe
Endeavour Hills is staring down the barrel of an outright defeat against Malvern in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association after a dismal display with the bat saw them concede first innings points on Saturday as the competition returned to two-day cricket.
Sent in to bat, the visiting Eagles were rolled for 127 in just 41 overs, before the home side reached 7/173 at stumps.
Awais Ahmed’s 69 accounted for more than half of Endeavour Hills’ runs, as Zac Perryman and Vajinder Taggar both made ducks at numbers three and four respectively.
Former Victorian and Tasmanian quick Andrew Fekete took 4/24 for the home side.
Malvern batted with aggressive intent, attacking the Eagles’ bowlers with four players’ strike rates reaching 200 or more.
Vice-captain Madurawalage Jayasundera took 3/48 by the time stumps was called on day one, Malvern already 46 runs ahead of Endeavour Hills with a second day to play.
Noble Park fared much better with the bat in its clash with Balwyn, bowled out for 236 in 80 overs at Moodemere Street.
Scores in the 40s from Janaka Liyanabadalge and Rajapakse Rajapakse mitigated minor scores from the remainder of the top order and were punctuated by Matthew Pearson’s 65 at number seven.
Sahan Perera was held to just four runs, his second-consecutive single-figure score, and was one of Balwyn opening bowler Andrew Gorvin’s five wickets.
Noble Park needs to secure a result to keep pace at the top of the table with Elsternwick, who is likely to secure a win in its clash with Bayswater after scoring a monster total of 372.
