By Jonty Ralphsmith
11/822.
No, this wasn’t a test match played on a Pakistani highway; it was the aggregate score of a park cricket run fest in Kooweerup.
While the rest of round 4 of the Casey Cardinia Cricket Association is at its midway point played across consecutive Saturdays, the Demons’ clash with Merinda Park was played across Saturday and Sunday.
Kooweerup gun Chris Bright guided the chase with a fierce double-century, while Shiran Rathnayake and Merinda Park’s Daniel McCalman also reached three figures.
The Cobras took advantage of winning the toss on day one, with star batter McCalman going through the gears terrifically and providing the backbone of his team’s innings with 181 off 219.
There were five 50-plus partnerships throughout the innings, with opener Adam Fisher playing a steady hand, before Tobias Van Den Heever, Tyson Bertrand and Pawan Thind all cashed in.
Winless across their first three games, the Cobras set the game up perfectly, tiring a venomous Kooweerup attack to position themselves for a major scalp against the undefeated Demons.
After a 74-run opening stand, Merinda Park picked the run rate up just before lunch on day one.
The Cobras scored 3/156 off the last 20 overs in a blistering display of power-hitting, with the 91 runs across the final 10 overs containing 11 boundaries.
Thind sent each of the last three balls to or over the rope to help Merinda Park breach the 400 mark.
That score could have been even greater if not for a six-wicket haul to Shiran Rathnayake who was able to stunt the innings in periods.
But if Saturday appeared to represent the big step forward Merinda Park had been hoping to take in 2024-25 by competing with the best in the competition, Sunday was a brutal reality check.
After Matt Dennerley and Bertrand failed to build pressure or breakthrough for a wicket in their opening spell, the lack of execution in the visitors’ bowling stung.
Chris and Paul Bright set the platform with a momentum-shifting 199-run opening stand as the Cobras attack was made to look pedestrian.
Lines and lengths waivered, which allowed the pair to find gaps and score freely, with Merinda Park unable to ever regain momentum.
Zac Davis was dismissed for a golden duck following Paul Bright’s dismissal for 84, but Rathnayake partnered Chris Bright to the doorstep of victory as both reached triple figures.
The captain-coach finished unbeaten with a bullocking 205 off 197, while Rathnayake took apart the medium-pacers and slower bowlers with 102 off 95.
For the natural evolution that occurred in the Merinda Park XI across the offseason, the only bowler with biting pace who was added was Dennerley, with that once again exposed as its Achilles heel.
