JONTY: Welcome back to LTS lads after a high-scoring round of cricket in CCCA Premier and DDCA Turf 1 competitions, with some T20 action thrown in as well. I cover 16 teams, none of them passed 200; you have 16 teams between you and all but one passed 200. That’s good homework from me. Marcus, where was your best action?
MARCUS: I’m giving my best action to a fielder by the name of Adam Snelling from Narre South. I’ve heard once or twice that catches win matches. Jonty, you were a captain at a pretty high level, I’m sure it came up in a rev-up speech in your prime.
JONTY: Very funny…move on!
MARCUS: Snelling was fielding on the square-leg boundary and Berwick’s Jarryd Wills skied a hook shot that went high into the air. Snelling had to charge in a good 20 or 30 metres and got there on the dive. He was pretty sore when he got up but given they only won by five runs and Wills was hitting them well at the time, it was pretty big. If he hadn’t put his body on the line, it could have swung the match and given Berwick an extra handful of runs. But he took the catch and played a really important role for his side.
DAVE: For me three games were already decided after three huge scores on day one. Kooweerup was chasing Devon Meadows’ 228 in the only game of interest. There’s a young bloke at Kooweerup called Mitch Davey, he’s 23 at the moment but at 16-17 he was spoken about as a potential Vic Premier cricketer he was that good. A lightning quick left armer, an all-rounder. But Mitch is showing signs of coming back to his best. He made 40 runs on the weekend and one of the spinners from Devon Meadows, Lucas Carroll, dropped one a touch short and he just rocked back and smacked it over mid-wicket for six. It’s a bit of a statement for Mitch Davey. If he can get himself right, he could become the best cricketer in this competition. He’s at least 6’6’; you don’t want to face blokes like that and he also bats pretty well. He’s been in the shadows of some really good cricketers but I sense he’s starting to emerge. I hope that six is indicative of what Mitch Davey is going to show us over the next 5-10 years.
MARCUS: There’s nothing like a left-arm quick to put the fear of God into batters.
DAVE: I used to hate facing lefties in the nets, you feel like they’ve pinned you to the back wall of the net and you’ve got nowhere to move.
JONTY: Exactly. Is this the first round of cricket we’ve had all season where conditions have been really warm and batter-friendly?
DAVE: Yep.
JONTY: Probably for the DDCA, it’s the first time it’s happened for three or four years, given the lack of two-day cricket, and batters have capitalised on that in Turf 1. Marcus, some batting performances you want to give a shout out to?
MARCUS: Jake Hancock at Berwick. Berwick was 5/150-odd at tea, chasing 345, and I left the game because I thought it was done. They lost about 4/16 just before tea, the middle order was gone, so it was all on Hancock’s bat. He finished unbeaten on 135 so he couldn’t have done much more. He may look back and think he could have scored a bit quicker early, but he lifted the tempo later in the day. He had an unbelievable contest with Jeevan Mendis who was varying his pace and lengths and everything and Jake was up for the challenge; it was obvious both had played cricket at a higher level.
JONTY: Very good. My best action was also a catch; Malan Madusanka from Coomoora. He took seven wickets in the game against Doveton North, which was bowled out for 45 and 44 – 89 runs in two innings having faced 70 overs at Power Reserve. He took an outstanding catch to dismiss Jeewantha Hennadige which started a collapse of 6/12. It wasn’t just the catch, which was essentially an overhead mark at mid-on, but what it led to in the game.
REVISITING PREDICTIONS
JONTY: We’ll start with you Dave, who did you predict to win the premiership in preseason, how are they going and would you change that prediction now, with the benefit of hindsight?
DAVE: I copped a little bit of flak from Kooweerup when I made these predictions because I said they would finish third. They’re currently one of the two top teams in the competition, but the reason I put Tooradin to win the premiership is because they had the Sweeney boys coming in to add some depth. The reason I had Pakenham second is because Dom Paynter came back, a former captain, and I had a feeling Chris Smith would have an explosive season – which he has in the last two weeks. The reason I had Kooweerup for third is because Jess Mathers, the best bowler in the competition, had a serious foot injury at the start of the season and looked like he wouldn’t play all year. He bowled in A Grade on Saturday but I don’t think Jess will be back for the finals which is where Kooweerup will suffer. I was having a look at Tooradin as well, they’ve got an issue of how they’re going to stack their batting order from 4-9 because they’ve got some players of similar quality under their top three. And Pakenham to finish runners-up is in the hands of Dale Tormey and Smith. My number-one prediction though Jonty, was in District, I said Cooper Pursell would lead Officer to a grand final and he’s currently leading the bowling by six or seven wickets. He’s had the impact I thought he would coming down from Premier where some of the best bats used to rate Cooper highly.
MARCUS: He’s made some decent runs too.
DAVE: Couple of fifties…he’s in the Country Week squad too.
MARCUS: In Turf 1, certainly Berwick jumps out compared to my preseason expectations, they’re sitting second at the moment. They were a bit of a mystery going into the season, welcoming past players back. It was a surprise to see them fall off the way they did last season after making a preliminary final the season before, but they’ve outperformed expectations. I’ll say the same about Narre South who brought in two internationals that have played pivotal roles. You never know how they’re going to go, it can be feast or famine, but Cruickshank and Nicholls have been sensational, which has them in third. The interesting thing with those two is they both have Springvale South and Buckley Ridges to come and not much separates second-placed Berwick on 42 points and fifth-placed Hallam Kalora Park on 39. North Dandenong is one team which last season made finals for the first time in a while and there were some expectations, but two-day cricket has really set them back. They’re a team of enigmas who are suited to white ball cricket.
DAVE: What about you, Jonty?
JONTY: Going into the Turf 2 season, Dandy West were seen as the clear front runners to go up again and they have remained premiership favourites for most of the season. HSD is clearly in the top two of the competition as well and I had them third. The big thing I got wrong was expecting too much of Parkmore, I thought they would be grand finalists with some players they’ve brought in and coming down from Turf 1. But those recruits haven’t had the impact the Pirates would have liked and Parkmore are currently sitting comfortably in the bottom four and will miss out on finals. In Turf 3 I had Coomoora defeating Fountain Gate in the grand final and that’s something I will stick with. I had Lynbrook seventh but that club has taken an enormous stride this season and could quite easily be in the grand final despite losing Jesse Walia this season to injury.
DAVE: So you’re tipping Dandy West go from Turf 3 to 2 to 1.
CAPTAINCY
JONTY: Captaincy is a role in sport which is always going to polarise and draw criticism given it is inherently opinions-based. From your perspective firstly, Marcus, is there a club call that you don’t understand – but someone continues to make this decision?
MARCUS: It’s tough because I’m picking all-rounders and I’m loathed to give them too much responsibility given batting and bowling is such an arduous task, but two really come to mind. Jeevan Mendis for Narre South, it’s a surprise to see him bat at five or six. He’s ageing a bit and has the big work load with bowling, but you want your best batters at three or four and I think having him so low is a bit of a waste particularly given the openers at Narre South have been feast or famine this year. Cal Nicholls is out of the year with injury, so maybe now he gets a promotion.
DAVE: Is this becoming a trend? You wrote a story on a player who got injured the next week too, didn’t you Jonty?
JONTY: Tajbir Powar got injured between the interview and me actually printing the story!
DAVE: It’s a curse.
MARCUS: Everyone still answer the phone, please! Let’s not put people off. Jordy Hammond is in a similar boat to Jeevan, an all-rounder, but he bats five or six as well. If he could bat alongside Mahela Udawatte, that’s would be as good a three and four as you’ll find in the competition. And Springvale South: Jackson Sketcher has a golden arm with the ball. We saw on Sunday in the T20 grand final, he broke the big opening partnership by getting Brent Patterson. He seems to make things happen with ball in hand so I think he’s a bit underutilised with the ball.
DAVE: Mine are more batting-oriented. I mentioned before where Tooradin will bat all their quality batters. Mick Sweeney, Tom Hussey, Dylan Sutton, Tyler Evans, Russ Lehmann: all really good players and because we haven’t played a lot of two-day cricket this year, they still need to figure out their best order. The one for me is Kooweerup. Chris Bright is the most dangerous opener in the competition and on the weekend they dropped him down to four to give Lachie Ramage a go at the top. Lachie is a good opening bat, can see off the new ball, but doesn’t score quickly, which can be valuable as well in the latter overs. So I think they need to decide whether to go with Bright to get them off to a big start or Ramage to see off the new ball. And Gamini Kumara, he batted at seven on the weekend. So it’s all over the shop at the moment. I would have had him pencilled in as the number three at the start of the season. Cardinia has a guy called Bradey Welsh and he seems to be handing over a lot of the responsibility to a lot of the young blokes this year, but I like his batting and reckon he could bat higher. And Cardinia captain Dean Henwood hustles onto batters and I reckon he could utilise himself a bit more as a strike bowler. And what about this for a stat, boys: a young kid from Clyde, Max Adams, has batted 11 times this year for eight not outs. He hasn’t made a lot of runs but maybe deserves a little promotion.
JONTY: Well mine is sort of similar, Jett Kearney from HSD. They want him to have the clear role of being a finisher at the end of the innings and I understand that, I really do, and they will say what he’s done is proved them right, and made that spot his own. But he’s had a good season without being able to have an outstanding season because he is coming in at about seven, often there’s a lot of pressure on with some failings in the top order. They’ve got some great names on paper in their top six but they haven’t quite fired so I think at some point, you have to back in a player in form. Five knocks of 20 or more, but no 50, and those innings are almost always at a strike rate of about 100. He could transfer pressure back onto teams with a quick-fire half century higher up. Has 239 runs at 27. So Craig Hookey, give him a go!
