By Jonty Ralphsmith
The beginning of March heralded finals action in the Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) Turf 3 arena with performances under pressure critical in both games.
Both batting-first teams faced questions early, but whereas Berwick Springs had the depth to wrench momentum back, Lynbrook was ultimately unable to overcome a well-drilled Coomoora bowling attack.
FOUNTAIN GATE v BERWICK SPRINGS
It was fitting that in the DDCA’s return to two-day cricket in 2023-24, one of the Turf 3 semi-finals was decided by an old-school, pressure absorbing knock that ground opposition bowlers into the turf.
Archit Vora’s century played to his skillset perfectly; a simple mantra that skipper Braydon Hillman has preached repeatedly throughout 2023-24 – which saw him accumulate and frustrate the Coomoora bowling attack in a 101-run partnership alongside his skipper.
“We knew we had a heap of time and I’ve played a heap of cricket with Arch, he has batted at three for us for so many years so having him at six is a luxury,” Hillman said.
“He’s a smart cricketer we all rate.
“He would do his thing and I knew I would stick around, and Arch just stuck around after doing the hard yards early.
“We knew we could just grind them into the ground because it was pretty warm on Saturday and when he got wide ones, he would throw his hands at it.”
After getting through the big-hitting Jackson Marie, Riley Hillman and Radomir Badzoka, and seeing off an organised 52 from Shalika Karunanayake, Fountain Gate had edged in front of the game.
Jasdeep Singh hit the deck hard, extracted variation from the pitch and injected excitement into the Gators’ psyche with four wickets in his opening spell.
Then the 39-over, 101-run partnership between Vora and Braydon Hillman was a death-by-a-thousand cuts combination.
“We had a solid platform to go on but the limiting thing was in a two-day season after so much one-day cricket, not many teams bat out the 80,” Vora said.
“We just wanted to do that and we backed our bowling attack to defend whatever we made.
“I feel confident against spin so it was just about batting time, ticking it over and doing that got us about three runs an over.”
Vora’s work as a doctor for St Vincent’s hospital has limited him to just nine games this season as he has struggled to both make himself available for Saturdays and train enough to produce his very best.
But two training sessions this week allowed Vora to play what he described as his best innings.
“That’s been the limiting factor for me, at least having one or two consistent hits coming into the season you at least feel alright going into Saturday so having that broken time has not been great,” Vora said.
“This week I felt really good having had the volume behind me so hopefully it will bleed into next week as well.”
The bowlers, led by Karunanayake’s three wickets, comfortably defended 259.
“We knew how they would come at us and we played it up a bit, we had five out in the third over to (Hasindu) Waduge and Ted (Sampath) and played to their ego a bit.
“Waduge can hit anyone anywhere.
“Scotty bowled a huge spell working Waduge over with the new ball.
“We’re not the quickest bowlers but I would pick our attack over anyone in the league.
“We just get to work and play simple cricket.”
COOMOORA V LYNBROOK
Coomoora was a class above Lynbrook in all facets, bowling the Lakers out for 101, led by five wickets to Malan Madusanka.
The game was set up by a strong opening spell between Joel Robertson and Dean Krelle, building pressure by not only getting star players Tajbir Powar, Sithara Perera and Jay Walia early, but also preventing the Lakers from getting away on the scoreboard.
Despite the usually free-spirited Lynbrook batting for 48 overs, it never gained significant momentum, Krelle’s figures off 3-8 off 15 was indicative of the suppressive discipline, before Madusanka tore the middle-order apart.
Anchor Rahoul Pankhania passed 50 in the easy chase.
Despite the disappointing showing I the semi, Lynbrook clearly exceeded competition-wide expectations this season as the young brigade all chipped in well to support recruits Sithara Perera and Jatt Singh.
