Endeavour Hills win beats the rain

By Gavin Staindl
ALTHOUGH Endeavour Hills’ two-dayer over the weekend was washed out it did manage to sneak in a Twenty20 win earlier in the week.
The Hills backed up its most recent one-day win with a 28-run home-ground win over Bayswater in the shortest form of the game.
Coach John Hayes was switched on from the toss, deciding to bat first knowing it becomes harder to hit at Sydney Pargeter when the light begins to dim.
The decision paid off for Hayes as his team made a “competitive” 8/139 with Behan Weerakoon (42) topscoring.
Matt Aslett prevented any form of chase down by Bayswater taking 4/19 but it was Shane Peake and Weerakoon who stole the spotlight for the innings.
With Tom Stray (50) in fine form and Endeavour Hills in need of a wicket, Peake found himself back-pedalling to deep mid-off where a skied ball was coming his way.
Lunging backwards to reach the ball, Peake got a hand to it only for it to bounce out and spring away.
The fast-thinking Weerakoon, who had covered a lot of distance rounding the boundary, dived spectacularly for the tipped ball and managed to catch it one-handed and stretched out alongside Peake.
According to Hayes the spectacular catch ended any chance of a Bayswater revival.
“It was certainly a good catch and it made sure that any push they had was deflated,” he said.
“I was pretty confident we could defend our total but when Tommy Stray got going and they started hitting the ball a bit better I felt we could do with a wicket here,” he said.
The dismissal of Stray all but secured victory for the Hills as it restrained Bayswater to 7/111.
“It was a pretty easy win in the end … Everyone was pretty happy,” Hayes said.
“We didn’t sing the song after the game because the players opted not to get carried away.
“I was pretty impressed at that. I know any win is a good win, but we preferred to remain focused for the weekend.
As it turned out, little focus was needed as Endeavour’s round four match against Noble Park was washed out.
The Sub-District committee decided on Monday that the round would be played as a one-dayer this Saturday while round five will also be played as a one-dayer the next week.