By Blair Burns
Back-to-back has a nice ring to it for Buckley Ridges after the powerhouse club tasted the ultimate success for a second consecutive year, defeating Hallam Kalora Park to be crowned premiers of the Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) Turf 1 competition.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl at Arch Brown Rec Reserve, the Bucks couldn’t have started the game any better thanks to a special opening spell from fast bowler Prav Chahal.
The English import took the crucial early wickets of Ben Hillard (1), Leigh Booth (1) and Damith Perera (4), all in his first two overs leaving the Hawks in some serious trouble at 3-9.
Mahela Udawatte had to be the man for Hallam Kalora Park, and he delivered one more time stabilising the innings and single-handedly dragging his side back into the contest.
The former Sri Lankan cricketer built his innings nicely and began to find the boundary frequently making it look easy out in the middle.
Jagveer Hayer has been in some impressive form during the back half of the season but it didn’t come easy this time as he battled against the bowling of Chahal and Ishan Jayarathna, struggling to get going.
The Hawks were in a spot of bother at 4-41 when Hayer (7 off 51 balls) hit Jayarathna a return catch and was on his way.
Udawatte was joined by his skipper Jordan Hammond who provided some resistance and found the boundary, but was soon knocked over by Michael Davies for 13.
Young Austin Fardell hadn’t dominated this season but provided a crucial knock for the Hawks when his side needed him the most hitting 40 – his second highest score of the season behind his 68 in Round 1 (also against Buckley Ridges).
Udawatte (69) and Fardell (40) put on a 68-run partnership to give Hallam Kalora Park a chance the following day and get their final score to 183.
Chahal was a wrecking ball and came back on late to get another two wickets, finishing with exceptional figures of 5-19 off 15.4 overs.
With time still left to play on Saturday, Buckley Ridges had to go in to bat and survive 10 overs late in the day but it wasn’t without loss.
Buckley Ridges opened with captain Jayson Hobbs and Jake Cronin as they tried to navigate the difficult conditions.
Hobbs was 1 off 20 balls and leaving everything he could when some good captaincy from Hammond saw a fourth slip added to leave a gap at cover, trying to tempt Hobbs into playing a shot.
The skipper took the bait and snicked off to wicketkeeper Perera the following ball.
Night watchman Westley Nicholas was also gone soon after for 1 but the Bucks held firm to stay get to stumps with the score sitting at 2-24.
Losing their next few batters on Sunday morning would’ve made the Buckley Ridges fans nervous as Troy Aust (24), Ben Wright (11) and Roshane Silva (10) all failed to go on with their starts.
It was down to Dale Tormey and Jayarathna to see their side to premiership glory and they held their nerve to bring it home.
They withstood the challenges thrown at them by Hallam and managed to continue to score to guide their side home with a 78-run partnership under the warm sun.
While the belief of one more wicket continued to give the Hawks hope, Buckley Ridges’ pair Tormey (41 not out) and Jayarathna (45 not out) made sure they were there at the end.
The Bucks finished at 6-184 off 49.3 overs capping off a stellar season where they defeated Hallam Kalora Park four times and ticked off their back-to-back quest winning another Turf 1 flag.
Chahal was awarded the Fleming Medal as the best player from the match with his five-wicket haul setting up the victory for Buckley Ridges.
