By Marcus Uhe
It’s Buckley Ridges chasing against Springvale South in a showdown between the best two teams in DDCA Turf 1.
It’s the midway point in the Buckley chase, and Jake Cronin has provided his side with an excellent platform after a strong bowling performance from the Buckley attack, but has recently departed.
It’s Springvale South striving for a breakthrough, lifting the intensity and chatter in the field as what felt like a storm brewed overhead with the game on a knifes-edge.
It’s Mahela Udawatta’s dismissal that sparks a mini-collapse in the middle of the innings for the boys from Park Oval.
Sound familiar?
The parallels between Saturday’s game and the corresponding fixture in round 12 three weeks ago were abundant.
Poor fielding on that occasion let the Bloods off the hook, who managed 265 despite a lack of contributions from the top order, having been gifted second lives through a series of dropped chances, most notably to Jordan Wyatt.
But on Saturday, Buckley were on top of their game on a slow wicket at Alex Nelson, with a grand final spot on the line.
Batting first, the Bloods top order again failed to fire, with only Cameron Forsyth passing 50.
Looking to lift the tempo by advancing down the wicket to hit two boundaries in his first three deliveries, Wyatt departed for an aggressive 21 from 19 after an excellent catch on the boundary from Cronin, and Ryan Quirk was adjudged LBW on 49 off the bowling of Sanka Dinesh.
Forsyth was the rock in the middle order, hitting 70 off 69, picking gaps in the field and rotating the strike with his fellow batters, but with 220 on the board after their 45, Buckley were in the hunt.
“They have a very good batting line up which keeps coming at you,” Buckley Ridges skipper Ben Wright said.
“The pitch wasn’t easy to take wickets on and I thought we stuck at it really well.”
The return of Jayson Hobbs at the top of the order from injury added stability and experience to the Buckley batting line-up, and he was required early when Daniel Watson departed for six.
Josh Dowling was fired-up for the Bloods with the new ball, following-up the wicket of Watson by producing a nervous edge off the bat of Hobbs on his second delivery that was grassed by Wyatt at first slip.
He and Cronin added 94 for the second wicket, handling the squeeze the Bloods put on them in the field as Paul Hill kept-wicket up to the stumps and close fielders penetrated their eye-line as both reached half-centuries.
Wright said he’s been impressed with the surety Cronin has displayed, with scores of 37, 24, 142 and 59 on Saturday since replacing Hobbs at the top of the order.
“Jake has been brilliant and matured a lot this season,” he said.
“We always knew he has lots of talent and it’s great to see how he’s taken to opening.”
Having been held-back until the 21st over, Blade Baxter’s introduction to the attack proved a masterstroke by Quirk, breaking the partnership when Cronin was caught on the leg-side boundary.
Tension was rising throughout the left-armer’s over, as Hill appealed for two stumpings and Cronin responded with a lofted drive through cover before becoming Forsyth’s second catch.
All of a sudden, the atmosphere at Alex Nelson resembled that of a cauldron.
The energy lifted between fielders and almost manifested a sharp three-wicket collapse that painted momentum red.
Wyatt made amends for the earlier drop by hanging-on to a sharp chance at cover to remove Mahela Udawatte for 15; Hobbs became Mitch Forsyth’s third catch for 50; and Troy Aust was stumped for five, as Jarryd Straker tightened the screws like he so often has throughout the season.
Very quickly 2/132 in the 29th over – with a set batter in Hobbs at the wicket – became 5/149 with two new men at the crease in the 34th, as memories of their 3/0 crumble against the Bloods from three weeks prior came flooding back for those watching.
But Wright managed to put the scenes of three weeks ago out of his brain to focus on the task at hand.
“It was one we definitely got wrong and we learnt some good lessons from it which probably helped us on Saturday,” he said of the earlier fixture.
“It didn’t look like an easy wicket to get ones, so I just tried to be as busy as possible early-on knowing that if we could keep the run rate around six runs per over, we had Ishan (Hadigallage Jayaratne) and (Michael) Davies who could clear the ropes at the end.”
Jayaratne’s stumping brought Davies to the wicket, who showed all his experience with a pair of huge straight sixes to swing the ascendancy back to blue.
With 24 required off the final 24, Davies hit Straker for six, and slog-swept a four, to half the required runs.
While he departed before the final runs were scored, his 22 off 19 were critical, as Matthew Goodwright struck the winning runs at the end of the 44th over, to secure their spot in a second consecutive grand final.
“We were really pleased as we haven’t chased too much this season, and we have got a couple of them wrong and let ourselves down,” Wright said.
“We have always had belief, we just hadn’t been anywhere near our best this season against them and they aren’t a side you can play against at 80 per cent.”
The vanquished Bloods will tackle Hallam Kalora Park next week for the chance to extract revenge on Buckley and defend their Turf 1 crown, after the Hawks brought an end to the enigmatic North Dandenong’s season at home.
The Maroons would have been hoping to draw on their winning form from two weeks ago, when they conquered the Hawks at the nest, and started well with the ball, sending both openers back to the sheds within the first eight overs.
Matthew Cox (81) hit his highest score of the season, combining with skipper Jordan Hammond (68) to diffuse any concerns after a shaky start.
But their 135-run partnership was not capitalised on by the lower order, as the Hawks set 236 for victory.
“It was good to spend some out there on Saturday and the best time of the year to do it is in March when it’s finals time,” Cox said.
“We probably left 30 or 40 out there after I got out, we lost a few wickets fairly quickly.
“I think 260 would have been game over, but 230 gave them that little bit of a sniff that they were still in the game.”
With recent history in mind, Hallam Kalora Park was as aware as anyone of the Maroons’ capabilities, and their bowlers got them off to the perfect start, with both openers gone in the first two overs as they fell to 2/4.
Javed Khan seemed unfazed, hitting 71 from 76 in a one-sided partnership with his captain, Clayton McCartney, before he became the first of Lee Brown’s four wickets.
Brown finished with 4/28 off his seven overs to sink the Maroons’ middle order, and shapes as an ace up Cox’s sleeve, having not been a mainstay in their first XI this season.
“‘Browny’ is a really good Turf 1 bowler and has been for a really long time, and we know he doesn’t bowl bad balls,” Cox said.
“In one-day cricket, it’s just so hard to get the overs and fit everyone in, and he’s been the unlucky one throughout the year and now at the right time of the year he’s been bowling as well as anyone.
“We gave him an opportunity and he took it massively.
“It’s great to have him back, he’s so much fun to have in the dressing room, he gets everyone up and about.”
Khan’s dismissal precipitated a collapse of 8/80 as the Hawks reflected the gap between the two sides on the ladder at the end of the year.
Lauchlan Gregson also finished with four wickets as North Dandenong closed their drought-breaking finals performance by being removed for 175.
