By Marcus Uhe
Devon Meadows will host Upper Beaconsfield at Glover Recreation Reserve in the CCCA District grand final this weekend after both recorded comfortable victories in their respective semi-finals.
Chris Cleef’s six-wicket haul on day one helped the Panthers restrict Cranbourne Meadows to 9/229, which they chased with five wickets in hand, while Daniel Brennan’s 7/42 saw the Maroons skittle Lang Lang for just 90, having made 251 on the first day.
Cleef, Lucas Ligt and Lucas Carroll combined to neutralise the Rebels’ batting line-up, with numbers two-to-six combined for just 27 runs.
Outside of opener Rohit Sharma’s 68 and Sajjanmeet Singh’s 98 not out, the next highest scorer was Mandhiraj Singh’s 15 at number nine, as only three players reached double figures.
Cleef finished with 6/85 in a monster 33-over bowling performance, his third five-wicket haul for the Panthers this season, and his captain in Carroll was also tight, bowling nine maidens in his 16 to grab 2/20.
Ligt was the mainstay in the chase, hitting 11 fours in his 74, raising the bat for his half-century with a clip off his pads to the Tommy Piper Memorial Wing side of Glover.
He and Sam Robinson added 94 for the third wicket before Robinson was dismissed, and the home side began to wobble in the windy conditions, losing a quick 3/18, including Cleef and Ligt.
It was left to Carroll, who combined with Nathan Worsteling for a 78-run sixth-wicket stand to guide his side into next week’s decider with four overs remaining.
At Upper Beaconsfield, many batters made starts for the hosts but no one was able to capitalise on the foundations they had set, as wickets fell consistently.
Captain, William Haines and Imesh Jayasekara both made 44 to share top-scorer honours, Corey Joyce added 40 and Chad McDonald 36, but no one had the glory of a raised bat to show for the effort.
Dale Cranston and Rajind Dassanayake took three wickets each as the Maroons were dismissed for 251 in the 78th over.
Any fears the Maroons may have had about a sub-par total were allayed by Brennan’s career-best performance.
He bowled half of his side’s total 53.4 overs to finish with 7/42 to send Lang Lang crashing out of the competition.
It leaves us with a grand final that pits the two standout sides in the competition against one-another in a fitting finale to the 2022/23 season.
A whopping 46 points separated Upper Beaconsfield in second place on the ladder from Lang Lang in third, underscoring the disparity between the grand finalists and the rest of the field.
Recent history favours Devon Meadows, who won both fixtures between the two sides in the home and away season, including a nine-wicket thrashing in a two-day fixture in round 12.
The Maroons will be drawing on the memories of last year’s preliminary final where they chased the Panthers’ total of 191 with three wickets in the shed, and hoping to repeat the dose in this year’s decider.
The grand final will be played across both days this weekend, with the first ball to be bowled at 1pm at Glover Reserve on Saturday.
