As Springvale South’s Glen Scales shows, unfortunately dressing-room cricket is about all that was played after torrential rain blanketed the ground on Saturday. 28377 Picture: Luke PlummerBy Stuart Teather
IT IS grand final time in the Dandenong District Cricket Association, but at the weekend it seemed someone forgot to tell the weatherman, with torrential rain battering the grounds.
There was no action on Saturday, but teams managed to sneak in some overs on Sunday in between rain delays and the games will be played out this weekend with the reserve day, Sunday, coming into play.
Springvale South v Parkfield
The Turf 1 grand final will be fought out this weekend after the two sides only managed to squeeze in 45 overs on Sunday, but it was enough for Springvale South to grab a hold on the game.
Springvale South sent Parkfield into bat, but the batsmen took control early and a good opening partnership between Ryan Pitts (20) and Brad Houghton (38 not-out) got the ball rolling.
But Springvale South’s Sri Lankan sensation Suranjith Silva came in and stemmed the flow of runs with his spinners, eventually claiming Pitts’ wicket.
That breakthrough triggered a mini collapse for Parkfield and the side lost 2/2 with Tim Ford and Silva both striking in quick succession.
Parkfield settled again, but scoring was tough and within 13 runs Springvale South had struck again.
Captain Dale Harris fell for two at the hands of strike bowler Nick Bole-Brown, leaving Houghton and club president Tony Payne (eight not-out) at the crease at the close of play, with the side on 4/76.
Harris said he had hoped to have one or two more wickets in hand heading into the second weekend.
“We had a good start, we were 0/40 and things were going well and then the spinner (Silva) tied us down,” he said. “In the situation we’re in we would’ve liked 250 runs, but we’ll have to scratch our way to about 220, which should be competitive.”
Harris said his side was still in a position to post a decent tally, despite losing some of its’ best batsmen. “Shane Bell has played the past three games and averaged 127, so we’re hoping he’ll get some runs,” he said. “When we’ve been in trouble this year, the tail has made some runs and whenever we’ve started well they haven’t, so hopefully they’ll add a bit this week.”
Springvale South captain-coach Craig Slocombe said he was happy with his side’s position. “We think we’re in a good position at the moment – we hope we can make early inroads this week,” he said. “We bowled really tight, which was good, we didn’t bowl many bad balls and the outfield was slow.”
Southern Pirates v Mordialloc
The Turf 2 clash between Southern Pirates and Mordialloc will also have two days this weekend to play with only 52 overs played last Sunday. Mordialloc won the toss and went into bat and the decision paid off, with the side racing to 2/112 at the close of play.
Captain and opener Tim Richardson remains unbeaten on 37 and had good partnerships with Aaron Martello (17), Matthew Newman (29) and Travis Campbell (20 not-out) to help his side to a strong position heading into the second weekend. Of the bowlers, Leigh Taylor bowled a good line, restricting the batsmen and picking up figures of 1/29 off 20 overs.
Mark Rickerby (1/21 off nine) claimed the other wicket, while Peter Atkinson (0/41 off 17) did his share of the bowling work.
