By ROY WARD
ENDEAVOUR Hills will be without wicket-keeper batsman Shean Vanderwert for several weeks as he recovers from a fractured hand.
The skilled keeper and No. 3 batsman injured his hand while keeping on the first day of the Eagles’ clash against Oakleigh in the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association. His side lost by 117 runs at Sydney Pargeter Reserve on Saturday.
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Vanderwert did not bat against the Oaks, leaving the home side without a key cog in its batting order.
Eagles captain-coach Matt Hutchinson wasn’t sure how long Vanderwert would be out but said his absence would be a massive loss to the side.
“He was coming off 77 in our last match. If you add that to our score today, we get up to 260. Because he is such a steady batsman then perhaps we wouldn’t have lost as many wickets and had a few more to play with in the final session.
“He kept his cast off today in case we needed him to bat, but he has to get one put on it. We don’t know how long he will be out.”
Hutchinson was also disappointed with his middle order after the Eagles lost several wickets in quick time mid-way through the day.
“We lost too many wickets in bunches and that hurt us. We lost about 4-20 at one stage and we had to make eight runs an over. Top teams don’t lose wickets like that.”
The Eagles did show plenty of fight in the final hours of the match.
Veteran Richie Saniga (68) fought it out until the last wicket and Neil Peake (50) hit some impressive shots earlier in the day.
“To fight it out showed everyone we could finish the overs,” Hutchinson said. “At tea they would have been thinking about an outright. We showed them there was no chance of that and batted on until 5.30pm.”
The Oaks shared the wickets, with Brent Warren (2-18) and Jeremy Devlin (2-41) getting the best figures. Tall off-spinner Daniel Croft (1-26) was also impressive, bowling several maiden overs and using his height to get bounce and drift.
Oaks captain Jarrod Travaglia said his side was happy to continue its unbeaten start and get past the Eagles’ tough lower order.
“We were just worried about getting those nine wickets,” he said. “We knew they batted deep. Richie Saniga had batted brilliantly and bowled well last week as well. We were just worried about getting them out.”
Elsewhere on Saturday, Noble Park fell short in its run chase against Ivanhoe and lost by 13 runs, with Mevan Fernando (71 not out) and Darren Seccull (39) the best batsmen.
Endeavour Hills hosts Box Hill at Sydney Pargeter Reserve for a two-day match starting at 1pm this Saturday.
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