By Marcus Uhe
What shaped as a potential grand final preview in the Dandenong District Cricket Association’s Turf 2 competition on Saturday proved to be a one-sided contest in the finish thanks to an excellent bowling performance from HSD against Parkfield.
A rematch of last summer’s preliminary final in which Parkfield emerged victorious, HSD turned the tables to record a comfortable six-wicket win at Casey Fields, easily chasing the Bandits’ total of 151 in the 36th over.
HSD coach Criag Hookey was pleased with his side’s performance, labelling the win as “professional”.
“We still have the belief that we should win absolutely every game that we play, no matter the opposition,” he said.
“It was good to have it fall our way and be a complete performance bar the last 10 overs of our bowling innings.”
A defiant seventh wicket partnership from Steve Cannon and Sanjay Kahawatte dug Parkfeld out of trouble with the bat, having slumped to 7/94 in the 31st over.
An even spread of contributors with the ball helped to curtail the Bandits’ batting card, with the wickets shared between Triyan De Silva, Ryan Patterson and Jawed Hussaini, while those who did not claim a scalp were effective in keeping the scoring rate down.
Patterson was economical in his new role taking the new ball with De Silva, offering just 14 runs from his seven overs.
Last summer’s Gartside Medal winner in De Silva picked up where he left off from last season by removing the opening pair of Nathanial Cramer for 12 and Dishan Malalasekera for four, with Patterson grabbing the dangerous Riley Payne for four also, ripping the heart out of the Parkfield top order.
Prized recruit Sahan Jayawardana offered the most resistance with the bat, hitting 36 off 59 deliveries, but wickets fell around him and restricted their ability to build partnerships.
Cannon and Kahawatte’s 57 runs for the seventh wicket added respectability to the scorecard, while on the bowling front, HSD recruit Hussaini offered the desired impact with the ball, taking 3/23 from his 12 overs.
HSD experienced a minor wobble in the chase but in truth, never looked considerably troubled.
Left-arm quick Jayawardana showed in part why he was so sought-after in Turf 2 by removing the dangerous Zahoor Sarwari in his opening over, and the wickets of Brent Patterson (18), Mackenzie Gardner (32) and De Silva (13) gave Parkfield glimmers of hope, but the Cobras escaped danger by completing the chase in the 36th over.
Hussaini and Anuda Akmeemana added 75 for the fifth wicket to complete the endeavour as HSD staked their claim as one of the teams to beat this summer.
Not that Hookey is concerned about the outside noise.
“I’m not really worried about what other teams think, but I think it’s really important for us that that was a professional win,” he said.
“We did it with 10 overs to go and in the past, we might have done that seven or eight (wickets) down.
“To do that four down with 10 overs to go is a great sign for us inside our club.
“I sent the boys a message after the game and said ‘that’s how we want to win, we don’t want to be seven or eight wickets down when chasing 150.’
“We were really happy with the way we came across and credit to our middle order for getting it done.”
