By Marcus Uhe
8.4 kilometres separate the Lions den at Strathaird Reserve and the Hawks nest at Hallam Rec Reserve.
Turn right at Hallam Road, out of Ormond Road, coming from Narre Warren, and then left at Frawley Road and you can get there with just two turns.
And on Saturday, it felt like the two venues were side-by-side as the outcomes shared a symbiotic relationship.
Narre South needed a Hallam Kalora Park win against North Dandenong to take the Maroons’ spot in the top four.
The Lions’ opponents, Parkmore, needed the six points to escape the dreaded last spot and give themselves a chance to avoid relegation.
Needless to say, there was plenty on the line as screen-time surged and thumbs ached from the constant refreshing of MyCricket.
Things started well for Narre South at both venues.
In a new role at the top of the order for the Lions, Harsha de Silva looked comfortable as he kept the scoreboard ticking over, reaching 1-100 in the 24th over.
While in Hallam, North Dandenong’s leading run-scorer in Turf 1, Ramneet Dhindsa, picked a terrible time to register his first duck of the season, as the Maroons collapsed to 4/63 in the 14th.
Maroons coach, David Bell, admitted he was very concerned.
“I thought we were in a lot of trouble,” he said.
“There are teams like Narre South who I know can take our spot, and I knew how they were going, so I thought we were in a lot of trouble.”
Advantage Lions.
Enter Clayton McCartney.
McCartney, who had registered just one half-century this season, played the knock his side desperately needed, putting-on 85 with Austin Heldt for the fifth wicket as he made his highest score of the year, with 80 off 105.
Bell was full of admiration for his leader, who he felt fully grasped the significance of the moment.
“It was probably one of the best captain’s knocks I’ve seen,” he said.
“Definitely one of the best I’ve seen at North Dandenong, for sure.
“He had to stand-up at that moment, there was no choice, and he did.
“He played his natural game a bit, and that was good to see.
“He knew how big a game it was and knew that he had to lead from the front, and he did.”
As the Maroons began to build, the Lions started to falter.
The introduction of Ammar Bajwa into the attack slayed the Lions’ momentum, as four quick wickets fell, including de Silva (48), Jonty Jenner (25) and Jeevan Mendis (11), shifting momentum to the Pirates’ favour.
Bajwa bowled his 12 overs unchanged to take 5/45 in a standout performance from him this season as the Pirates put-on the breaks, bowling to their field and drying-up the runs.
A pair of dropped chances at the end of the innings proved costly, however, as Zach Wilson’s late boundaries pushed the Lions to 184.
Wilson was dropped by wicketkeeper Johann Brohier off a skied pull-shot, and Jawed Hussaini was given a life after a catch was grassed at cow corner.
Off the final ball, Wilson made Parkmore pay, blasting a four to rub salt into Gavin Lehman’s men’s wounds.
On the whole, however, he was pleased with his bowlers’ fight-back.
“They were looking at 230, 240 based on their start, so it was great to reign it back to 184,” Lehman said.
“But I was hoping for under 180 and that was something I addressed at the break.
“To have a drop by the ‘keeper and then to have a drop by the man in the deep, that’s essentially six runs there that they just shouldn’t have got.
“You can look at it now and that’s the ballgame, but we were pretty happy to reign it back and chase 184.”
Back at Hallam, some big hitting from Muhammad Khan (60 off 35) and Tahsinullah Sultani (34 from 22) added 59 from the final five overs, as they posted 7/250 from their 45, their highest team score of the year.
Tennis players were ducking for cover as the batters launched into the Hawks bowlers, with Khan smashing four sixes and three fours.
The stage was set for an intriguing second 45 overs at both venues, as sun came to the fore in the late-February afternoon.
The Pirates made a reasonable start to their chase at Strathaird, with all of their top five reaching double figures, led by Johann Brohier’s 40.
But building partnerships proved difficult as Wilson and Kyle Hardy took regular wickets, much to Lehman’s frustration.
36 runs was the highest stand of the innings, between Jaime Brohier and Amal Athulathmudali, before Athulathmudali was strangled down the leg side on 32.
Eight kilometres away, Hallam’s Leigh Booth was doing his thing, and found a willing ally in Matthew Cox, who hit his highest score of the year with 38.
Cox whipped balls through the leg side with ease, before chopping-on to Imran Laghmani in the first over of what would become a critical spell not just in the context of the afternoon, but their entire season, and the fate of four clubs.
With the wickets of Cox, Booth and Jordan Hammond, his hit-list resembled a who’s-who of Hawks, and when Kevin Kean was dismissed, they’d lost 6-71 as the middle order dramatically faltered.
Some late resistance from Ciaron Connolly and Sachith Jayasingha pushed the innings into the final over, but it ultimately delayed the inevitable, as a direct-hit from Dhindsa finished the innings on 208, 42-runs short.
“It was probably the best win for the year, definitely the most important we’ve had,” Bell said.
“Our main run scorer didn’t get anything so it was nice that that happened and we could still make a decent score.
“We’ve been fighting relegation and it hasn’t been in our own hands.
“It’s nice to be able to play a game of cricket that shows that if we win, and we’re good enough to win, then we deserve it.”
So the Lions’ chances of jumping into the four after this weekend were now dashed, but a win would keep the dream alive for next week.
Parkmore, though, still had it all to play for, as Buckley Ridges’ 37-run defeat of St Mary’s meant they would climb to seventh if they could close-out their second win of the year.
As the last remaining recognised batter, much fell to the shoulders of Jaime Brohier, who looked to take the chase as deep as he could, as Narre South were forced to improvise with part-time bowlers.
When he chopped-on for 37 to become Wilson’s fifth wicket, the Pirates required a further 15 off 16 balls with two wickets in hand.
Seven off the 44th meant they needed another seven from the final over to win, and jump St Mary’s.
But like he did in the final over with the bat, Wilson held his own with the ball delivering an “exceptional” final over in the eyes of Lehman, conceding just three singles, as the Pirates fell three runs short to remain anchored to last place.
“To hold your nerve, they stacked the offside and he pretty much bowled wide outside the off stump, yorker length or a little shorter and said go for it, but we couldn’t get the boundary through there,” Lehman said.
“He bowled well to their plan, no loose balls, none down leg, but also got pretty lucky with a couple of big wickets.”
With so much at stake, Lehman said the disappointment from his men was evident, having executed their intentions extremely well during the chase.
“The whole game plan was to take it deep, right to the last over, with the field out, even allowing six or seven off the last over with set batters at five six seven, it’s very achievable on that ground to chase anywhere between six-to-eight off the last over,” he said.
“Losing Bajwa and Jaime Brohier with four or six overs left, and having two new batters who aren’t recognised as batters at the crease, that’s pretty much the ball game there.
“There was always a wicket that fell at just the right time, and that was something that kept pulling it back towards their way and stopped the momentum for us.
“That was probably the thing that hurt the most.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more except for not losing key wickets at key times.”
Unlike North Dandenong, the equation is not as simple to avoid returning to Turf 2 next season.
The Pirates travel to Springvale South with the need to knock-off the Bloods, and will be hoping that Berwick can defeat St Mary’s.
Springvale South’s six-wicket defeat of Berwick means they are guaranteed top spot regardless of next week, but Lehman is not expecting any favours.
“It comes down to this week right and we’ll be pushing a bit of shit up-hill, playing Springy, but it’s not unachieveable, by no means.
“We’ve scored 240, 250 against some of the best sides at the level.
“It’s just going to come down to our bowling, controlling the game with our bowling, that’s one thing we’ve got to do next week.”
