Doves keep ducks down

By Helena Adeloju
ROUND four saw Doveton, Hallam-Kalora Park, Cranbourne, Narre Warren and North Dandenong all record respectable totals at the crease.
Lowly Keysborough did it tough against top-ranked Springvale South and will be hoping to regain some confidence before playing out the second innings at the weekend.
Coomoora’s Mervan Fernando (4/65) was dangerous with the ball against Hallam-Kalora Park’s batsmen, claiming his season-best figures.

TURF ONE

DOVETON made the best of its visit to the Parkfield Reserve pitch with a respectable 256 in Turf One on Saturday.
Sent to the crease after losing the toss the Doves’ bats performed reasonably well against the Parkfield attack with just one duck between them. Stand-out performers Matthew Hutchinson (47) and Daniel Raines (46) came up just shy of their first half-centuries of the season, denied by an on-the-ball Parkfield side.
Doveton’s Nathan Wilson (35) and Shaun Tongue (34) also came up with the goods when it counted, leaving them with two men standing at the close of play.
Dale Harris (3/20) was Parkfield’s most economical bowler, taking his first wicket of the season and adding two more scalps to his haul to clean up the lower order in his four-over spell.
Shane Doig (2/59) restricted the middle-order damage and Mark Butters (2/82) took care of some of the danger men early on, leaving it to their batsmen to pick up where they left off this week.

Coomoora v Hallam-Kalora Park

It wasn’t its choice to start the batting and it showed early, with one of Hallam-Kalora Park’s openers caught for a duck.
Steve Chapman (78), Nicholas Hawking (52 not-out) and fellow opener Michael Torcasio (50) fared better, but Coomoora had Hallam-Kalora Park ducking and weaving with middle-order anchorman Nicholas Cox falling cheaply.
With two wickets in hand at day’s end, third-placed Hallam-Kalora Park set Coomoora 249 runs to chase this weekend.
Coomoora started with the ball and Mervan Fernando (4/65) was dangerous, taking out almost half of Hallam-Kalora Park’s batsmen to claim his season-best figures.
David Nutting (3/90) was back in form after a wicketless last round, taking Fernando’s lead to lock in his own season’s best performance.

Berwick v Cranbourne

Cranbourne won the toss, but its legs and Berwick’s field kept getting in the way on route to a competitive total of 274.
Daniel Diwell (76) and Shane Murdoch (61) made an impact with the bat to post their best Turf One performances of the season.
Both Kyle Brook (29 not-out) and Brett Harrop (28) also contributed to make tidy batting scores.
With three men given out lbw and another six caught, Berwick’s bowlers were hitting the mark.
Alex Roberts (4/91) came up with yet another impressive bowling display and James Prendergast (2/27), Will Carr (2/43) and ever-consistent Ash Henry (2/47) posted solid bowling figures to keep the Cranbourne total within reach.

Narre Warren v St Mary’s

Top five-placed Narre Warren had it all its way for its home game at Wilson Oval, winning the toss and electing to bat.
There were no ducks in the Magpies huddle this week and the runs were flowing early with skipper Troy Cashman leading from the front.
The final total was 234 with Luke Byron (72), Troy Cashman (61) and Paul Sharp (38 not-out) combining to make the majority of the team’s runs.
St Mary’s bowlers Dwayne Scott (3/67), Shane Simpson (2/24) and Ryan Christie (2/28) did well to limit Narre Warren’s run rate and hold it at an achievable score.
When the Magpies resume at the crease this week they will be chasing a win that could see them move into the top three, while St Mary’s will be hoping to make a move from 10th place.

TURF TWO

St Brigid’s-St Louis v Fountain Gate

Fountain Gate won the toss with a good Bondi Oval batting pitch the prize. Belting its way to a healthy total of 277, Bruce Mullen came up with an unbeaten 117 not-out run haul and David Lucas (36), Stephen White (33) and Jarryd Murrian (32) locked in their highest scores of the season.
The St Brigid’s-St Louis’ bowlers did their best to slow the run rate, taking out two batsmen for a duck and Lucas Johnson (2/28), Simon Ruthven (2/49) and Christopher Bull (2/58) added a couple more scalps each to their season tally.

Hampton Park v Berwick

Hampton Park started at the crease, but the openers would rather have been anywhere else, with both caught out for just five runs between them. Stephen Boltong (56) repaired some of the damage along with Matthew Bartlett (41 not-out) and Rhys Fegan (26).
Adam Watson (5/45) and Cam Henry (3/47) combined to clean up the majority of Hampton Park’s batsmen with two bowing out scoreless. Berwick’s bowling attack kept runs to a minimum with Berwick now having every chance of locking in a win this week with the run chase total a modest 169.

HSD v Lyndale

Lyndale won the toss in the home game, but that was about all that went its way.
HSD was sent to the crease and came out blazing and was 9/124 in just 43.1 overs with skipper Trevor Davies (35) leading the run-scoring.
Lyndale’s bowling line-up of Michael Gallagher (4/20), Liam Mara (4/31) and skipper Benjamin Montgomery (2/26) took care of the HSD batsmen, but their own willowmen faltered when sent to the crease, falling for just 74.
HSD look to be well positioned in this match, but it could go either way this week.
With the second innings to play, bottom-of-the-ladder Lyndale will have everything to gain and top-of-the-ladder HSD will have its pride on the line.

Springvale South v Maranatha Methodist

Feeling confident for its home game, Springvale South won the toss and sent Maranatha Methodist for their bats.
Equally confident, Maranatha Methodist came out strongly with skipper Brett Ernst (136) leading the charge and the ever-consistent Kyle Hardy (50 not-out) and Shane Goldfinch (30) contributing generously to the mighty total of 291.
They found two ducks in the Maranatha Methodist batting line-up, but struggled to stem the run flow at times.
With Springvale South yet to mount its run chase, Damien Simmons (3/37), Timothy Kelson (2/46) and Benny Aruman (2/58) did their best to keep Maranatha Methodist short of a triple-ton total.