A Damith Perera century guided Hallam Kalora Park to its second win of the season as the Hawks edged out Dandenong West by six runs in a thriller.
The Bulls’ run chase came down to the final over, but the Hawks banked the much-needed victory to push closer to the top four.
This was despite Dinesh Kulasekara hitting two sixes and a four off the final over to give his team some hope with an outstanding knock of 49 not out off 23 balls.
After winning the toss and electing to bowl first, Dandenong West took the new ball in a rain-affected one-day game which was reduced to 29 overs each.
The Bulls struck early to remove Jagveer Hayer (8) thanks to a run out from Liam Richardson, but the visiting side solidified from there, as Jawid Khan and Damith Perera began to build a partnership.
The pair scored rapidly in the shortened innings and put the pressure back on the bowlers, adding 106 for the second wicket before Khan (56) was caught behind from the bowling of Malinga Bandara.
Perera pushed on and was the star of the show, scoring an unbeaten century to help the Hawks find some form and post a strong total of 3/205.
Hallam Kalora Park’s rocky start to the season has seen the top order change around a bit, with Leigh Booth and Ben Hillard finding themselves in different spots on occasions.
It was the first time that Perera has batted at first-drop this season and he made no mistakes in delivering a dominant 104 not out off 74 balls.
With more than seven runs per over required from the outset, Dandenong West was going to have to bat well if it was to chase the runs down.
After his half century with the bat, Khan (3/32) took the new ball and drew first blood, sending Shaun Weir (10) back to the sheds, before Shaveen Ranawaka knocked over the number three batsman Madushanka Perera (4) – the score sitting at 2/44.
Mohit Mandora (34) and Malinga Bandara (48) showed some resistance throughout the top order, as did Nipunaka Fonseka (25), but the required run-rate remained high.
Dinesh Kulasekara (49 not out off 23 balls) had to be the guy to get his team over the line for victory, and despite scoring 18 runs off the final over of the innings, his side fell six runs short.
The Bulls needed 25 runs off the final over to win, which was unlikely, with Hayer closing out the innings for the Hawks.
But Kulasekara went bang, belting a six from the first ball of the over – 19 required off five balls.
Then it went dot, four, dot and then the equation was 15 required off two balls, game over provided Hayer produced two legal deliveries.
Kulasekara finished the over with a two and another six to end up with 49 not out, and despite an expensive over, Hallam Kalora Park got the job done.
While a few Dandenong West batters got some good starts, none of them were able to turn it into a big score and push on like Perera did in the first innings, which ultimately cost the Bulls.
