By Blair Burns
HSD will have to bowl very well on day two of the Turf 2 grand final to defend 170 against the Parkmore Pirates this Saturday at Thomas Carroll Reserve.
Adverse conditions and flooded pitches across the league meant that the Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) will have to wait another week to crown their Turf 2 premiers with the remainder of the match to be played on Saturday; the reserve day.
As it sits, the Parkmore Pirates are in the box seat for victory and if they get off to a strong start with the bat, they will back themselves to score the runs and taste the ultimate success.
The Cobras won the toss and elected to bat as opening pair Brent Patterson and Ethan French got settled at the crease.
The pair clearly weren’t worried about their poor recent form as they confidently saw off the new ball and built a good foundation for the rest of the innings.
In fairness, Patterson was coming off a half century in the semi-final against Lyndale, however his two scores prior to that were ducks.
French had scored two early season 50s, but had ultimately failed with the bat since the Christmas break scoring 12, 10, 1, 4, 1 in the lead up to this grand final clash.
While they worked hard to build a 78-run partnership, the Parkmore bowlers bowled good areas and made scoring tough.
HSD captain Craig Hookey applauded the opening partnership between French and Patterson who showed great resilience.
“I thought our opening partnership was sensational and it was the way we like to play our cricket, aggressive and don’t get stuck up one end,” he said.
“Frenchy battled the conditions and worked hard for us to help post a score that we can defend.”
Patterson was sent back to sheds with 35 to his name as Satheesh Fernandu got the important breakthrough.
The time had come for HSD star Mackenzie Gardner to make his mark on the game, could he be the match winner for a second consecutive week?
Despite only making two against Parkmore earlier in the season, you didn’t have to tell the Pirates players how important this wicket was, after he scored 112 last week to guide his side to the grand final.
Gardner was going to be the danger man after a standout season where he’d made 555 runs at 61.67 – the best batting average in the competition.
The young star also made headlines earlier in the season when he blasted 140 not out off 126 balls in a one-day match against Narre Warren.
Gardner and French struggled to rotate the strike and faced a combined 47 dot balls out of a total 54 deliveries in the nine overs following the first wicket.
Gardner was 1 off 5 balls when he hit Bajwa for a four, but there weren’t many scoring shots to follow as Bajwa spun a web around him.
In a bid to remove him cheaply for the second time this season, Pirates’ captain Niranjen Kumar chucked the ball to Ankit Saxena who got the prized wicket when the sides met last.
But it was Bajwa who looked most likely and after 17 consecutive dot balls to Gardner, he got the wicket as wicketkeeper Joshua Tonna took the catch, the danger man was back in the sheds for 8 – the Snakes sitting at 2-95.
Parkmore captain, Niranjen Kumar said it was a huge wicket for the side and credited the diligent bowling to grab a big wicket at a crucial time.
“Tea break was around the corner and we were bowling some really tight lines, he (Gardner) was trying to weather the storm and bunker down,” he said.
“We had half a chance the ball before where he edged it and a deflection hit Tonna’s pads, and the next ball was a faint edge which he held on to.”
Triyan De Silva was the next man to the crease and looked to continue his stellar season which saw him contribute 408 runs and 22 wickets.
He continued his reliable performances adding 30 to the total while French effectively played the anchor role.
At 3-132 with just more than 20 overs to bat, the side would’ve been eyeing off a score in excess of 200 and hoping their middle order could steer them home.
But Bajwa was yet to have his full impact on the game as the right arm off-spinner destroyed the HSD middle-lower order taking wicket after wicket.
Up until that point, Gardner was Bajwa’s only victim, but he quickly added three more as he removed Anuda Akmeemana (duck), French (62) and Jett Kearney (2).
French faced 189 balls and ignored the mental demons of his recent struggles to stand up when it mattered most to yield his best score in more than four months.
He was patient and scored slowly, dispatching the bad balls to score 10 boundaries, but the Cobras would’ve been in real trouble if he didn’t hang around that long.
After those three wickets had fallen in quick succession, HSD was left reeling at 6-155 and had lost their key contributor in French who withstood the heat for more than 60 overs.
Satheesh Fernandu took two more wickets to finish an exceptional spell of bowling with 3-28 off 13 overs, before Bajwa came on and finished the job taking the final two wickets.
The memorable performance from Bajwa resulted in a disappointing collapse where HSD lost 8-38 and failed to bat out their overs.
Bajwa has taken many five-wicket hauls across hundreds of games but this could end up being the most important if the top order delivers a premiership on Saturday.
“Most of the momentum was generated from Baj, we were really happy for him … our motto this year has been about a team effort and he was the man on the day,” Kumar said.
“We would’ve liked to bat first as well based on the weather forecast because the Saturday was also pretty hot, we dropped a few early chances but we bowled to our field and things sort of fell into place after tea.
“We will take 170 given they were about 2-100 at one point.”
No play went ahead on Sunday due to the heavy rain despite the HSD skipper hoping he could get a few overs bowling at Parkmore.
“We really wanted to get some cricket in on Sunday and felt it would’ve suited us, even if it was 10-15 overs but unfortunately the rain was too heavy,” Hookey said.
The Cobras’ skipper backed his side in to defend but conceded that having a few more runs on the board would’ve been nice.
“The toss fell our way and we were happy to bat first and would’ve loved to put a few more runs on the board,” he said.
“To Parkmore’s credit, they were sensational after tea with their plans and fields, squeezing us into a position that was hard to get out of.
“The boys were very positive about it (the total), maybe even more positive than I was, so that definitely lifted the group a bit … we are going in confident.”
