Sunday’s Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) T20 grand final was a replay of Saturday’s clash between Narre South and Hallam Kalora Park – only this time the Hawks got the job done at Hallam Recreation Reserve.
After winning through against Buckley Ridges earlier in the day, Hallam Kalora Park made the most of its opportunity to win the grand final by 26 runs and make history.
It was the first time that the Hawks have tasted the ultimate success in the T20 competition which has been running for 20 years, despite being semi-finalists multiple times, including last year.
While Narre South fell short, they had come through the semi-finals with a super-over victory against Berwick.
The Hawks won the toss in the decider and batted first, opening with the in-form Jawid Khan and the dangerous Damith Perera.
Cal Tout got Narre South off to the perfect start, bowling three dot balls to Khan, before a single meant he finally got a ball at Perera.
Perera tried to aggressively take the ball to leg side and got nothing on it, popping it to Vineth Jayasuriya at mid-on and departing for a golden duck.
Khan kept losing partners at the other end and the Hawks were in a spot of bother at 3/28 before he hit his straps.
He began to dominate all of the bowlers and dispatch boundary after boundary with ease, scoring a rapid 95 off 51 deliveries (seven fours and seven sixes).
He was out in the 13th over much to the delight of the Lions bowlers as he was caught on the fence just short of his century, but much of the damage was done.
Khan was the only Hawks player to score more than 10 and single-handedly got his side to a total of 147 off 18.5 overs.
It was Hallam Kalora Park’s lowest score of the entire T20 series, but there is no doubt that the familiar home ground advantage helped, after getting to play all three finals at Hallam.
Tout took a couple of early wickets, before Jawed Hussaini ripped the innings apart late with 4/21 off 2.5 overs, with Kyle Hardy also taking two.
In reply, six Lions players scored between 10 and 20, with none of them able to turn a start into a big score, which could’ve been the difference.
Jayasuriya and Hardy (both 19) were the top scorers as the team posted 121 off its allotted 20 overs, falling comfortably short by 26 runs.
Jordan Hammond continued his dominance with the ball, taking 4/26 off four overs, while all of the other bowlers took one wicket.
Khan was the man of the match with his exceptional knock of 95, and his figures of 1/24 off four overs.
He also finished the DDCA T20 campaign as the highest run scorer with 272 at an average of 54.4 – more than 100 runs better than second place.
