By RUSSELL BENNETT
CASEY-South Melbourne ended the weekend with mixed results from its two Victorian Premier Cricket one-day matches against Melbourne Uni and Footscray Edgewater respectively.
The Swans made their way to the University Main Oval on Saturday and secured a valuable away-win over the home side.
Melbourne Uni won the toss and elected to bat but lost both openers early, as wicket-keeper batsman Jarrod Martignago (1) and Daniel Hutton (6) both fell to danger-man Andrew Perrin (3/30).
But from a precarious 2/19, the home side recovered thanks to a 50-run stand between skipper Jarrod Leggett (27) and Mark Simpson (60).
It took another two quick scalps – one a brilliant stumping from Troy Aust off the bowling of Chris Hall (1/17) – for the Swans to maintain their ascendency.
Hall was extremely miserly in his 10 overs, conceding just 17 runs and putting the clamps on the Melbourne middle-order.
After 50 overs, the home side was restricted to just 8/163.
The Swans had a nightmare start of their own – losing Josh Holden (8) early – before Shane Maggs (38) and Hall (21) steadied the ship. Daniel Watson (21), like Hall, also made a start before both fell to sharp catches off James Bett’s bowling. But it was skipper Jolyon Leaver (53) who really steadied the ship and played a major role in steering his side to victory, scoring an invaluable half-century. The Swans (6/164) ultimately reached Melbourne Uni’s target with almost eight overs to spare – recording a comfortable four-wicket win.
Disappointingly for Casey, the side was unable to consolidate its impressive away win with a strong performance at home the next day – losing by 70 runs to Footscray Edgewater.
Like on Saturday, the Swans claimed both visiting openers early in their innings to have Footscray on the ropes at 2/20, but this time around Footscray consolidated – stringing together a succession of meaningful middle-order partnerships before being eventually dismissed for 174 in the 48th over.
Watson and Holden started Casey’s run chase with real purpose, but when both fell inside two runs at 2/35 the wheels began to fall off. Watson (27) and Leaver (26) were the only Swans batsman to pass 25 as Lucas Dredge (3/6), Jake Haberfield (2/15) and Sunam Gautam (2/19) cut a swathe through he line-up – bowling the Swans out for just 104 in their reply.
