By JARROD POTTER
DDCA TURF 1 – ROUND 10 (Day 1)
HEINZ Southern Districts (7/256) flayed ladder-leading Springvale South thanks to an extraordinary second-wicket stand from Matt Cox (138) and Brad Downe (49).
From the highs of getting Cobras’ opener Trevor Davies (0) out for a blob, the match soon spiralled out of control for the Bloods.
With four first choice bowlers out of the equation – with Tim Ford, Malinga Bandara, Jackson Sketcher and Jarrod Armitage unavailable – it left a heavy bowling burden on Nathan King (4/76), Matt Wetering (2/67) and the skipper Craig Slocombe (0/32).
King stormed in with the new rock, shaking off the boiling-hot conditions – to try and keep the Cobras’ second-wicket stand from blooming.
But no matter what he did, Cox and Downe marched on.
The Soupmen top order smashed apart anything thrown at them, particularly Cox as he hit his way back into form. After a number of starts and none particularly cashed in, the onus was put on the skipper by none other than … himself.
Slashing his way through the Bloods – especially on the off-side through the covers – Cox raced to his fourth DDCA century, while Downe played the subdued role excellently, rotating the strike and pushing it down the ground to leave Springvale South without many options.
Finally an opportunity came as Downe hit out against King, but by then the damage was done. The last 10 overs were a springboard as Cox, Michael Davies (15) and Ryan Davies (15 not out) started smacking the stuffing out of the weary bowlers.
Cox would sky one in the dying overs, but not before belting the Bloods into a headache next week, chasing down 257 without many of its middle order all-rounders.
“Obviously their full attack isn’t out there so it made it a bit easier, but other than that I had a couple of chances, but you’ve got to have luck in cricket and it was a good day,” Cox said. “Was just good to get amongst them, get 250 and hopefully have a chance.”
Giving the bowling brigade something defensible was the pleasing takeaway from Saturday as the skipper thought it was time the batsmen lived up to their end of the bargain.
“Definitely the way we’ve batted over the last month – today to post a score, something for our bowlers to finally bowl at and finally give us a chance to get back into the four,” Cox said.
“It was really good – we put a big onus during the week on actually batting 80 overs and if we kept wickets in hand then we’ll do it and have something to bowl at and that’s what we did.”
