By Marcus Uhe
Nine rounds into the Dandenong District Cricket Association season, it’s time to forecast the end of year’s awards ceremony.
With names like Jawid Khan, Mark Cooper and Alex Cruickshank not returning to the DDCA’s Turf 1 competition this summer, there are vacancies aplenty from last summer’s best XI.
The batters largely picked themselves, while the bowling group was tougher to select.
A handful of Bloods can consider themselves desperately unlucky, such as Josh Dowling (second for wickets), Cam Fosyth (fifth for runs averaging 64) and Nick Boland (fourth for wickets amongst seamers) but selection is a cut-throat business.
Despite sitting atop the Turf 1 ladder, Buckley Ridges has only one selection – typical of a side chock-full of different contributors on a week-to-week basis.
THE LOCKS
Mitch Forsyth – Springvale South. 326 runs at 54.3, 4x50s.
Forsyth has been the best opening batter in the competition this summer, enjoying one of his best patches of form in years.
Last summer he made 234 runs at 23.4, meaning he has already surpassed that mark with five rounds to play.
Missing opening partner Ryan Quirk for the duration of the summer thus far, Forsyth has thrived with the added responsibility at the top of the order and is a key contributor to the Bloods’ early season success.
He’s passed 50 more times than he hasn’t, making him an easy selection.
Damith Perera – Hallam Kalora Park. 327 runs at 46.7, 2x 50s, 1x 100.
One of the biggest success stories of the summer.
The Hawks knew they needed to regenerate their list with Matthew Cox and Ciaron Connolly not returning to the nest, and Perera has been the ideal fit as a wicketkeeper batter
He top scored in a loss to Berwick when the next highest score was 25 and validated the faith in his first two-day contest with an excellent century against North Dandenong, before a vital 86 against Buckley Ridges just before the Christmas break.
With the gloves, meanwhile, he’s hardly missed a beat, ranking second for dismissals with 10 catches and one stumping.
Michael Wallace (c) – Berwick. 341 runs at 68.2, 2x 50s, 1x 100s.
The potential final piece to a Berwick premiership puzzle.
Returning to his junior club, the Bears could hardly have asked for anything more out of the former Casey-South Melbourne skipper in his first season at Arch Brown Reserve.
He has scores of 60 and 69 against two of the best bowling attacks in the competition, in Springvale South and Hallam Kalora Park, respectively, a century against Dandenong West and a vital 43 in trying conditions in a one-day contest against Beaconsfield.
Wallace is an all-round class act and would slot into the middle order of any side.
He and Perera at four three respectively will provide pesky left-right hand combinations with the opening partners.
Ishan Jayarathna – Buckley Ridges. 23 wickets at 9.86, 3x 5 wicket hauls.
Jayarathna with the new ball has fast become one of the competition’s most feared prospects.
Already one of the quickest bowlers in Turf cricket and with the ability to make the ball move, Jayarathna has been the most successful bowler in the competition by some distance to round 10.
He has three six-wicket hauls, kept his average below 10 and in five matches he has struck in the first over of the innings – against North Dandenong in round six, he did it twice.
Yet to take off with the bat, the prospect of him at full-flight is a scary one for Turf 1 opponents. His form will be as critical as any in the run home.
Nuwan Kulasekara – Dandenong West. 15 wickets at 19.2, 175 runs at 29.1.
If Dandenong West had any chance of solidifying its reputation and legitimacy in Turf 1, the former Sri Lankan veteran was going to be a key contributor.
And he has not let Anthony Brannan down.
With scalps like Wallace, Jeevan Mendis and Matthew Hague to his name, his ability to remove the big names on opposition scorecards has been of critical importance to the Bulls’ form. Kulasekara has played match-defining roles in four of his side’s first five games and was vitally important in the Bulls’ wins over Berwick and Narre South.
Wickets in consecutive balls against the Bears swung that contest on its head in round two, removing Wallace and Jordan Cleland upon returning to the bowling crease, before vital runs late in the card injected life into a dwindling chase.
His wicketless performances, against Hallam Kalora Park and Buckley Ridges, meanwhile, resulted in losses, stressing his importance to the Bulls’ attack.
Jordan Wyatt – Springvale South. 348 runs at 49.7, 2x 50s, 1×100.
There’s only one man with a century against Buckley Ridges this summer and that’s a man that has tormented the Bucks in recent seasons.
Wyatt is in the midst of another summer with a strike rate above 100 and remains as deathly a proposition to bowl to as anyone in the DDCA.
He can score to all areas of the ground and punish attacks for even the smallest of errors, often leaving bowling attacks helpless and lost for answers.
It has been in one-day cricket where he has got his side off to excellent starts, immediately forcing teams onto the back foot and, as he did against North Dandenong and Beaconsfield, relieving the pressure from teammates’ shoulders.
THE REST
Mahela Udawatte – Hallam Kalora Park. 290 runs at 41.4, 4x50s.
His average and run total does not hit the heights of his contenders but if selecting was purely based on numbers, this would be a moot exercise.
Where Udawatte has shone has been under pressure, and in his Hawks’ most significant results; 52 in a win against Springvale South when no other batter that day passed 50, 83 in a narrow seven-run win over Dandenong West, and 84 against Buckley Ridges, when the Hawks were fighting to survival at 3/26.
There would not be a single bowling attack in the DDCA that would like to see this man come to the wicket in the middle order.
Ashan Madhushanka – Beaconsfield. 16 wickets at 14.4. 211 runs at 30, 1×50.
Some may have thought the day would never come that Jarryd Straker would be unseated from the lead spinner’s role in a Turf 1 representative side, but Madhushanka has removed the Springvale South tweaker temporarily from his post.
Madhushanka has been vitally important to the Tigers’ side this summer as one of only two bowlers with a wicket tally in double figures.
He shone in the shorter format of the game, taking 11 wickets in the first four outings as a dangerous spinner with difficult to pick variety.
Plenty has fallen to his shoulders for the Tigers this season and he has seldom let his side down.
Jarryd Straker – Springvale South. 16 wickets at 17.3.
Okay, the selection panel couldn’t quite leave him out entirely.
He might not be the standout spinner to this point in the summer but some of his figures make for exceptional reading – 4/63 from 20 Park Oval overs in a win over Buckley Ridges, 2/1 from six overs against in a one-day contest North Dandenong, 4/28 from 12 overs with the white ball against Beaconsfield.
He and Madhushanka are tied with North Dandenong’s Charith Keerthsinghe as the three leading spinners, with the Maroons tweaker unlucky to be bypassed at this selection meeting.
Matthew Hague – Berwick. 238 runs at 34, 3x 50s.
While Hague has been somewhat feast or famine this season (three half-centuries and two ducks in seven innings), two of his half-centuries came at vital periods for his side.
He gutted out a match-winning 64 against Beaconsfield and was the only batter to find a way through the Dandenong West attack in round two, making 67 when his teammates around him failed to fire.
Coupled with baron runs for his contemporaries across the division, his selection becomes a straight-forward choice.
His teammate, Jarryd Wills, is the next highest runscorer among openers, but has been shifted to the middle order for two-day matches.
With the patient Forsyth at the other end, the dashing and attacking Hague makes for an ideal foil at the top of the order.
James Trodd – Berwick. 14 wickets at 24, 1×5 wicket haul.
Trodd has wasted no time in stamping his authority as one of the quickest bowlers in Turf 1.
The Englishman offers a point-of-difference as a left-armer and will be a handful when paired with Jayarathna.
This selection was a toss-up and he has been more expensive than some of the others to miss out, in Josh Dowling and Nick Boland but his ability to adapt to new conditions in a new country has given him the edge.
He has taken wickets in every game this summer with his best figures, 5/41 against Beaconsfield, crucial in helping the Bears notch an opening win of the summer in a tight contest back in round six.
THE XI
Mitch Forsyth
Matthew Hague
Jordan Wyatt
Michael Wallace
Damith Perera (wk)
Mahela Udawatte
Ashan Madhushanka
Ishan Jayarathna
Nuwan Kulasekara
James Trodd
Jarryd Straker
