Dashing Endeavour Hills opener Ryan Pearson was in great touch on his way to a quickfire 55 against Oakleigh at Warrawee Park Oval on Saturday. By Marc McGowan
DESPITE a valiant effort, Endeavour Hills lost outright to Oakleigh by nine wickets at Warrawee Park Oval on Saturday.
A lacklustre first-innings total of 107 left the Hills behind for the entire contest and the Oaks had already levelled the scores by stumps the previous weekend – with only five wickets down.
Endeavour Hills teenager Matthew Aslett (2/19) grabbed an early wicket on resumption, but it made no difference, with Oakleigh declaring soon after having already achieved first-innings points.
The decision set the chase for outright points in motion, with Hills captain-coach Ben Maroney still keen to cause an upset.
And the visitors could not have made a better start to Maroney’s goal.
Endeavour Hills openers Ryan Pearson (55) and Justin Merlino (26) dived into the task to set a strong foundation.
Pearson launched all-out attack, while Merlino was his typical stonewall self, which worked perfectly until the latter was dismissed with the score at 87.
Unfortunately for the Hills, Pearson joined him back in the pavilion on the same total. It was the same fate that befell teammates Matthew Hutchinson and Shaun Tongue when the tally reached 105 to leave Endeavour Hills four wickets down.
Maroney added some quick runs to move the score along, but it was tailender Simon Black’s (22) batting exploits just before tea that enabled the Hills to have some sort of chance of success.
The break marked the end to Endeavour Hills’ innings, leaving the Oaks 41 overs to reach the winning target of 151.
Hutchinson removed Chris Anderson to keep the Hills’ hopes alive, but Oakleigh’s star batsmen Jarrod Travaglia (67 not-out) and Michael Chapple (57 not-out) belted their side to maximum points.
Maroney bemoaned his side’s day-one batting performance, but was pleased with his bowlers’ display.
“We bowled both innings really well. We had them 6/110 and that’s a fantastic effort – it was our batters that let us down in the first week,” he said.
“I wanted 180 in our first innings and if not I thought we could lose this game and it worked out that way.
“The wicket was very good (on Saturday); it was crumbling up, but still played very true – we just couldn’t get any breakthroughs early.”
The defeat ends any chance Endeavour Hills had of finals’ action this season, but did not take the gloss away from what Maroney believes was a much-improved summer.
“We need a win to finish on a high, but at the moment it’s already the best result Endeavour Hills has ever had in 10 years in the subbies,” he said.
“Five-and-a-half wins is the most we’ve ever had and if we can finish with six-and-a-half wins we’re definitely getting ‘there’ – we’re thereabouts.”
The Hills ends its season on Saturday with a one-day fixture against ninth-placed Bayswater at Sydney Pargeter Reserve from 12.30pm.
