By Marcus Uhe
The four winners of round one will square-off in two separate contests in the Dandenong District Cricket Association’s Turf 2 competition this weekend, with the chance to become an early-season frontrunner up for grabs.
The buoyant Coomoora hosts Cranbourne, and Parkmore welcomes HSD to Frederick Wachter.
Coomoora and Parkmore are two of the competition’s wildcards, with one having not featured in Turf 2 last summer and the other taking a vastly different line up into this year’s action.
Coomoora will need to curtail Cranbourne’s boom international recruit Harrison Carlyon, who made a blazing start to life in Australia last week with a boundary-heavy 73 from 58 balls against St Mary’s.
His bowlers then offered nothing to the Saints in an excellent effort with the ball, holding them to just 159 in reply.
A scalp against a Turf 1 side of last summer will have done wonders for their confidence, and the Eagles will not want to drop points to Coomoora.
Coomoora’s recruits were also critical in piloting them to a thrilling win over Lyndale, and they’ll need to offer the same maturity and experienced heads when they take to the field again this week.
Knowledge of their home ground will no-doubt benefit the ‘Roos, keen to maintain their winning energy from last summer.
Parkmore, meanwhile, was one of just three sides to defeat HSD last summer, albeit in a two-day contest.
HSD won the return one-day fixture by 24 runs at the same venue as tomorrow’s contest, with Jackson Philpin taking 4/54 in the defence.
HSD looked excellent in round two against Parkfield but some errors in the field and with the bat showed they are far from a finished product.
When four winners face off, the reverse applies for the four losers of round two.
Lyndale hosts St Mary’s, and Parkfield hosts Narre Warren.
Parkfield will be keen to make amends for a disappointing round two performance and with former Magpie Sahan Jayawardana now wearing blue, the Bandits should have the edge over a struggling Magpies outfit.
St Mary’s, meanwhile, will not want to lose its opening two games of the summer, having suffered the scorn of relegation from Turf 1.
They will, however, need to offer a much-improved performance from last week’s showing against Cranbourne, particularly with the bat.
Tips: Coomoora v CRANBOURNE, Parkmore v HSD, Lyndale v ST MARY’S, PARKFIELD v Narre Warren.
