By David Nagel
Resilience came in two forms on Saturday – ‘strong’ and ‘wafer-thin’ – as two finals contenders hunted down outright points in round 12 of Casey Cardinia Premier Division cricket.
While Upper Beaconsfield (7/136 off 80 overs) took ‘annoyance levels’ to new heights in its second innings against a frustrated Pakenham at Toomuc Reserve, Devon Meadows (68 off 36 overs) capitulated in the meekest of styles; handing Cardinia outright points at Glover Reserve.
Let’s begin with the ‘strong’ resilience first, with Upper Beaconsfield’s Ben Amos (27 off 205 balls) showing unbelievable levels of concentration to deny a desperate Pakenham outright points at Pakenham.
The Maroons were horrible on day one, making 116 in 49.1 overs, before Chris Smith (72 not out) led the Lions (1/121 declared) to first innings points in just 20 overs.
Pakenham skipper Jack Anning then pulled the right rein; sending the Maroons to the crease for a tricky four-over spell prior to stumps on day one.
Sendhil Naidu struck an early blow for the Lions; the Maroons 1/15 at the close of play with Marcus Gehling on 14 not out and Daniel Brennan yet to score when play resumed on Saturday.
The Lions couldn’t have asked for a better start to the second day, with Brennan (4), Scott Pitcher (10) and Gehling (28) all back in the hut after 10 overs.
Amos then joined Josh Westra (34 off 101 balls) for a 52-run partnership that took 35 overs to assemble; frustrating the life out of Pakenham.
Westra was in ‘over-drive’ mode compared to Amos, with his 101 balls including one boundary and one six.
He departed in over 49 with the Lions requiring a ‘gettable’ five wickets from roughly 30 overs to secure maximum points.
But Amos was having none of it and dug deep even further.
Some of the stats of his innings are quite remarkable, considering he had nothing to play for except for personal and club pride.
An outright defeat would have made no difference to the Maroons; who were consigned to zero match-points after their horror day-one showing.
Amos only scored off 17 deliveries in his innings; patting 188 dot balls back to the bowler and took 173 deliveries to score his one and only boundary for the day.
That rush of blood was soon reined in however; with Amos not scoring from his 15 remaining deliveries before bails were flicked for the afternoon.
When his score was on 14, he faced 36 consecutive balls without scoring, and also had stints of 21, 20, 16 and 15 (twice) without bothering the scorers.
For comparison, Kooweerup’s Chris Bright faced eight less deliveries on his way to 205 not out against Merinda Park in round four!
Amos’s innings was impressive; not equally as Bright’s…but impressive all the same, and backed up his 13 from 71 balls from day one.
Across the two days he scored 40 runs from 276 balls; at a strike rate of 14.50, and single-handedly saved his team from outright defeat.
The fail to secure maximum points shouldn’t hurt the Lions in the long-run.
They currently sit fourth, six points clear of Clyde, and will start a warm favourite against a disappointing Devon Meadows this Saturday.
Win that and they should lock away a finals berth with Clyde to start ‘huge’ underdogs against reigning premiers Tooradin this week.
As mentioned, it shouldn’t hurt the Lions but they are still slightly vulnerable with two rounds remaining in the season.
Slip up against the Panthers this week and a round-14 clash against Tooradin awaits!
Will Haines (10 off 26) and Billy Gerrard-Kett (15 off 51) helped Amos to safety in the latter overs of the match, while James Close (3/13 off 12) and Marcus Martini (2/35 off 15) took bowling honours for the Lions on a day where all bowling figures looked particularly tidy.
While Upper Beaconsfield dug in for the fight, Devon Meadows (111 and 68) was the juxtaposition of resilient as the Panthers waved the white flag against Cardinia (3/117d and 0/68).
Declaring overnight with a three-run lead, the Bulls made surprisingly easy progression; having the Panthers eight wickets down after just 23 overs at the crease.
The pain started early for the Panthers, with Zac Bates (0) having his castle knocked over by Trishane De Silva (1/13) with the second ball of day two.
The home side was soon 2/13 after Josh Browne (1/4) found the outside edge of Nathan Kleinig’s (3) bat, before Josh Grogan (4/18 off 9) and Yohan Arumadura (2/21) went to work on the middle order.
Grogan was the main instigator for Cardinia, taking the important wicket of Lucas Ligt (7) before finding himself on a hat-trick just three overs further down the track.
Grogan had Ethan Wood (8) snick one through to a busy Bradey Welsh behind the stumps, before Ben Marsh (0) was trapped in front first ball.
Mitchell Kleinig survived the hat-trick ball, but became Arumadura’s second scalp; with Welsh taking a hot chance up to the stumps.
Grogan then took his fourth when Coby Podd (0) sliced one to Alex Nooy in slips, before Jamie Cape (17) and Ricky Mitchell (10) finally showed some backbone.
Number nine and 10 for the Panthers batted for 12 overs, before Bulls’ skipper Mark Cooper (1/1) trapped Cape in front with a full one.
Travis Wheller (1/6) then ended the innings in the next over when Mitchell found a leading edge and lobbed one back to the bowler.
While Grogan, Arumadura, Browne, De Silva, Cooper and Wheller all claimed wickets for the Bulls; the Panthers had very little to celebrate.
Cape, batting at nine, was their top scorer while Mitchell and Zac Shepherd (10) were the only others to reach double figures.
The Panthers’ pain continued after the tea break with Alex Nooy (28 not out) and Wheller (39 not out) making light work of the 66 runs required for maximum points.
Nooy now sits number three on the CCCA Premier Division batting list with 464 runs at a tick over 50.
Wheller also looked in good touch, hitting six fours in a confident-looking display after claiming four wickets on day one.
The talented right-hander – one of the best all-rounders in Premier – is slowly closing in on his best form.
Cardinia, now top of the ladder, hosts bottom-placed Merinda Park this week, while the Panthers will look to bounce back in a home game against Pakenham.
Kooweerup (5/272) has put a huge dent in the finals prospects of Clyde (176) and basically secured its own place in this year’s semi-finals after a commanding batting performance at Denhams Road.
Resuming at 1/0, Chris Bright (46) and Cody Miller (16) halted the new-ball damage for the Demons, with Bright savaging seven boundaries and a six in his 38 balls at the crease.
Praveen Perera (2/50) gave the Cougars a glimmer of hope, removing Miller and Bright, to have the Demons at 3/62, before the home sides’ enormous batting depth took control.
In a great sign for the Demons moving forward, Luke McMaster (93) was back to his brilliant best, belting nine fours and two maximums in 98 balls of class.
McMaster is one of the best players in the CCCA Premier Division but, until Saturday, hadn’t quite set fire with the willow.
Saturday’s half century was his fourth for the season, and second on the trot, as the hard-hitting all-rounder took his tally to 360 for the season.
McMaster shared an 81-run partnership with Shiran Rathnayake (44), before joining forces with Steven Dillon (56 not out) for an 88-run union.
Rathnayake’s knock was his best since the Christmas break, while Dillon’s unbeaten half century backed up his most previous knock of 49 in round 10.
The Demons are all hitting form at precisely the right time of the season in a worrying sign for the fellow premiership hopefuls.
Perera and Nick Shannon (2/50) battled hard for the Cougars, who now need to defeat Tooradin and Cardinia to be any chance of playing finals.
Kooweerup’s schedule is a lot less demanding; visiting Upper Beaconsfield in round 13 before a home game against Devon Meadows.
The Maroons and Panthers – sixth and seventh respectively – are the only teams with little motivation heading into the final two games of the season.
And Tooradin (6/270) is one step closer to a home semi-final after the reigning premiers held off a strong challenge from bottom-placed Merinda Park (229).
The Cobras lost a couple of quick ones early, but fighting knocks from Cambell Bryan (33), Charl Van Den Heever (83) and Pawan Thind (20) brought the underdogs back into the game.
Van Den Heever, playing his best knock in Cobras’ colours, guided the visitors into a strong position at 3/141…before Dylan Sutton (6/63 off 16) puffed out his chest and went to work.
Sutton, who had already claimed the early wicket of Ash Slater (2), took the next five wickets to fall; reducing the Cobras to 8/154 in a hurry.
Sutton started the rot in over 43; removing Van Den Heever bowled, before getting Tyson Bertrand (0) to tickle one through to Ben Parrott behind the stumps next ball.
Stand-in skipper Bevin Corneille (69 not out) saw off the hat-trick ball, but couldn’t plug the hole that was developing at the other end.
Sutton removed Thind, Adam Fisher (0) and Luke Dinger (1) in quick succession to leave the visitors in all sorts of trouble.
Corneille, however, showed great resilience as the skipper, sharing a 72-run partnership with number-10 Matt Dennerley (17) that threatened to cause a boil over.
Corneille made runs in a hurry, smacking Bailey Lownds for two sixes in an over, as the Cobras fought back hard.
With 12 overs remaining the Cobras required 45 runs to win, at a rate of less than four, with two wickets left in the tank.
The unfortunate run out of Dennerley changed the complexion of the game once again, with young-gun Tyler Evans (2/50) wrapping things up for the Gulls just four balls later.
The Seagulls had survived a scare and now sit pretty in second place on the ladder with the destiny of a home semi-final sitting squarely on their own shoulders.
They can’t ask for more than that; while Merinda Park can now just sit back and enjoy their last two games in Premier Division before being relegated to District next season.
Saturday’s run-chase sort of summed up the Cobras’ season…so close, but not once getting across the line.
The winless Cobras head to Cardinia this week while the Seagulls face another tough challenge at Clyde.
