By Marcus Uhe
Top spot on the Dandenong District Cricket Association’s Turf 2 ladder is now HSD’s to lose following its comfortable win over Narre Warren and Cranbourne’s loss to Lyndale.
With a simple 44 runs required for the six points on Saturday, the Cobras eased their way to victory for the loss of just one wicket in the 36th over.
Brent Patterson (80), who reached his first half-century of the summer and Mackenzie Gardner (62) both spent valuable time at the crease before Triyan De Silva accelerated the tempo in pursuit of an outright opportunity, smashing 62 from 32 balls.
Craig Hookey declared with a lead of 113 with 54 overs left in the day to remove the Magpies for a second time but Narre Warren staved off the rampage, despite a horror beginning to the innings, when Ryan Patterson claimed Daniel Orchard and Dilraj Singh in consecutive deliveries in the sixth over to reduce the Magpies to 2/6.
At 5/54 in the 30th over and with the Magpies fresh off an outright loss last week, the door remained ajar for another submission, but the defences of John Mentiplay and Ben Swift staved off the potential humiliation.
Mentiplay finished unbeaten on 41 and Swift on 32.
The extra points for an outright win and a four-point gap on second-placed Parkmore “would have been nice” according to Hookey, but he won’t dwell on the negatives.
With Brent Patterson and Gardner spending important time at the crease after respective lean patches, Hookey was pleased to see his batters respond to some recent feedback and purposeful time in the nets, both at and away from regular training sessions.
HSD has taken 88 of a possible 100 wickets this summer and has comfortably outshone its batting department, despite the talent in the top order.
“After the Parkmore game we’ve put it on our top five that the last two times we’ve batted against Parkfield and Parkmore, we haven’t been getting enough contributions from arguably our best players,” Hookey said.
“That was put on them, that they need to do a lot more of the heavy lifting rather than the middle and later order to get over the line.
“They batted really maturely on the first day that we had to bat, we were 1/70 overnight and Brent (Patterson) and ‘Macca’ (Gardner) were there overnight, then on Saturday they could just go about their work.
“It was good that they got some time in the middle and got some runs under their belt ahead of two pretty tough games.”
With top spot in their grasp and two huge fixtures in the next two rounds, the opportunity is there for the Cobras to hold on for the remaining three weeks, and earn the chance to host a semi final on their freshly laid pitch, a surface Hookey believes suits his quicks in De Silva and Ryan Patterson.
Round 12’s opponent, Coomoora, got the better of them in a white ball contest earlier in the year, and Cranbourne will have plenty to play for in round 13 as it too seeks a top-two finish.
“I really like where our side is at,” Hookey said.
“Our batting could always be better and hopefully we can take some confidence from (round 11) into two pretty big games.
“We‘ll have a few ins and outs with availabilities over the next few weeks so that will put a bit of pressure on us but this year I feel a lot more settled and confident in our 11, even our squad of 13/14 players that we can pick from if it comes to a final.
“I’m pretty confident in them this year and it’s good that we’ve got people in the twos getting runs; that’s something we probably haven’t had in the past so that fills me with a little more confidence then what I’ve had in the last few years.”
