By Marc McGowan
TO SAY Endeavour Hills is defying the odds would be a major understatement.
The Hills lost nine first XI players in a horror off-season and looked set to become the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association’s whipping boys this summer.
Endeavour Hills rolled lowly Ormond in round one, but order appeared to have been restored on day one of its clash with Elsternwick two weekends ago.
The Wicks’ attack steamrolled the Hills for just 185 before its batsmen reached 1/46 at stumps.
But day two at Elsternwick Park on Saturday was a completely different story.
Endeavour Hills thundered through Elsternwick’s batting line-up before surviving a late fightback to post an unlikely eight-run victory.
Richard Saniga (2/35 from 19 overs) snared the first wicket of the afternoon, but it was not until a stunning three-wicket burst that started 30 runs later that the match was turned on its head.
English import Richard Evans (3/30 from 16.4) claimed his first two victims of the game – either side of another Saniga wicket – as the Wicks lost 3/7 to fall to a tenuous 5/94.
Stuart Scorgie (35 runs) attempted to hold the run chase together, but was rapidly losing partners until Nigel Couzens (25) joined him at the crease at 7/128.
They crept Elsternwick 19 runs closer, but off-spinner Shane Peake (2/56 from 19) removed Scorgie and brother Chris Peake picked up number-10 Matthew Shimell’s wicket soon after.
Shimell’s dismissal left the hosts 37 runs behind and with only one wicket left.
The state of the contest owed much to the Hills’ discipline with the ball and its bowlers did not waver from this, despite the Wicks threatening to make a comeback of their own.
Couzens and Clayton Riddle calmly worked towards Endeavour Hills’ total until Evans saved the day for the visitors.
Couzens’ brave effort ended when gloveman Neil Peake caught him off Evans’ bowling.
The dismissal sparked mass celebrations for the Hills as its players breathed a collective sigh of relief.
All of Endeavour Hills’ six bowlers took a wicket in a supreme team display.
Hills’ captain-coach Vaughan Baxter was delighted with the triumph.
“It’s funny, actually, because my wife said there was more celebration after that wicket than when we won the (second XI) grand final last season,” he said. “It looked like we were about to lose, but in hindsight if we did happen to go down, I still would have thought the bowlers did very well.”
Baxter singled 15-year-old paceman Lachlan McIver, who claimed his maiden first XI wicket, out for praise after an economical bowling spell.
But Baxter was keen to point out that the win was a team effort.
“I don’t think we have any stars – we just have an even balance right across the board,” he said. “We have some good cricketers, but our success so far has more to do with us just going out and executing the basics well.”
Endeavour Hills faces Oakleigh in a one-dayer at Warrawee Park Oval from 1pm on Saturday.
