Casey-SM slips again

By Marc McGowan
CASEY-SOUTH MELBOURNE narrowly failed to open its winning account, going down by four wickets to North Melbourne in round two of the Victorian Premier Cricket season, after losing to Essendon by 20 runs in round one.
After being sent into bat, Casey-South Melbourne were immediately on the back foot, as North Melbourne opening bowler Peter Manser ripped through the top order to leave it 5/56.
Manser removed Stephen Nichols (six runs), Michael Hansen (one) and Joel Leaver (five) to finish with the impressive figures of 3/33, to be the pick of the North Melbourne bowlers.
With the new ball out of the way, Casey-South Melbourne began to settle and all-rounders Craig Entwistle (50) and Luke Van Raay (74 not out) set out to repair the damage.
Entwistle fell at 133, but Nathan Bird came to the crease and continued the recovery with Van Raay, as Casey-South Melbourne reached 215 at the end of 50 overs.
Casey-South Melbourne captain-coach Roger Sillence said from what had happened at the start, 215 was more than he expected.
“They all chipped in and we reached a score that we could defend,” he said.
North Melbourne opening batsmen Dale McDonald (30) and Christian Hewett (one) forged a solid start, but Troy Ryan trapped Hewett in front to snare the crucial breakthrough and when Sillence uprooted McDonald’s stumps on 42, Casey-South Melbourne looked in a position to steal the match.
Darren Dempsey (87 not out) and Gene Maurice (53) had different ideas, though, and constructed a 132-run partnership that appeared to snuff out the Casey-South Melbourne revival.
The ending of the Dempsey-Maurice union was the first of four quick wickets for Casey-South Melbourne, though, and left it with a flicker of hope, but in the end Dempsey was the difference and guided his team to victory.
Sillence described Dempsey as a really good player.
“We dropped him when he was on 50-odd, so it was a pretty crucial mistake in the end,” he said.
“We were always playing catch-up and in one-day cricket that makes things pretty difficult.”
He was eager to push the positives for his young side, though.
“You obviously like to get off to a good start, but we’ve got plenty of promising young guys in the team and a few in the twos that are looking good.”
Casey-South Melbourne takes on fellow winless side Frankston Peninsula this weekend at Central Reserve, Waverley in round-three action.