Springvale South handed Buckley Ridges its first loss of the Dandenong District Cricket Association (DDCA) 2025/26 Turf 1 season with a comprehensive 120-run victory over the reigning premier.
The Bloods moved to second on the ladder and have announced themselves as the best batting team in the competition, regularly posting scores of close to 300 across one-day and two-day matches.
It was a morale-boosting win for Springvale South who made 276, before bowling out the Bucks for 156 as the Bloods head into the break full of confidence ahead of their next challenge against Hallam Kalora Park.
“It was a fantastic win, the boys all played really well and it was a very consistent performance against a side who hadn’t lost a game all year,” captain Cam Forsyth said.
“We definitely had the worst of the conditions, so to win the game was a great effort, especially considering we had a couple of things against us.”
After losing the toss, Springvale South was sent into bat under cloudy skies at Alex Nelson Reserve and things looked a little different.
With gun opener Ryan Quirk away, the idea was to open with the powerful Jordan Wyatt, before the less-than-ideal conditions saw skipper Cam Forsyth bring Nick Boland up to open.
Boland scored three fours on the way to 15 off 10 balls, before he was dismissed by fast bowler Harry Snowden to hand the Bucks their first wicket of the day.
Snowden soon picked up another wicket and so did Hussain Ali, leaving the score at 3/50 with both Forsyth brothers back in the sheds.
Wyatt said hold my beer and went bananas on the Buckley Ridges bowling attack, hitting them to all parts of the ground.
A hamstring injury prevented him from running, meaning his power hitting was even more destructive than usual.
Wyatt (62) and Chathuranga De Silva (48) put on a 95-run partnership for the fourth wicket before Wyatt’s exciting 37-ball innings came to an end.
But the run scoring didn’t stop there as Blade Baxter made the most of his time at the crease to score 43 off 35 balls, combining with Dasun Opanayaka (49) to help push the Bloods’ score to an impressive 276 off 45 overs – Snowden and Triyan De Silva each took two wickets.
“Having that many runs on the board on a wicket that was giving enough to the bowlers meant we were confident we could defend that score,” Forsyth said.
“But you know what Buckley Ridges is like, they have a few guys who can take the game away from you, so I was very pleased we started well with the ball to break the back of their batting lineup.”
The Bloods did just that as they removed one of the most dangerous batters in the competition, Dale Tormey, for a duck as Opanayaka found his edge.
He soon took a second wicket as he sent Ayush Patel (17) back to the sheds before Baxter got involved.
De Silva (1) was the next man to go, before Ben Wright was also dismissed – both from some brilliant Baxter bowling, leaving the Bucks in trouble at 4/47.
Skipper Jayson Hobbs and Ishan Jayarathna joined forces at the crease and batted brilliantly to put on a 76-run partnership, but Dowling took another.
Jayarathna was the team’s last hope and when he raised the bat for his half century and he was scoring freely with nine boundaries as he passed the half century mark.
Dowling continued his brilliance with the ball to claim the wickets of Jayarathna (56), Cooper Gray (duck) and Michael Davies (duck) to rip through Buckley Ridges’ middle-lower order.
The Bucks were bowled out for just 156 off 25.2 overs as Dowling finished with 4/36, Jarryd Straker, Baxter and Opanayaka all picking up two wickets each.
It’s the consistency that the Bloods have been showing with bat and ball that has them as one of the hot favourites to win the flag this season.
“Our depth is the strongest that I have seen in my time at the club with the batters and also the five bowling options who are going really well at the moment,” Forsyth said.
In other games, Beaconsfield was embarrassed by Hallam Kalora Park as the Tigers were bowled out for just 55 on their home deck, before the Hawks chased the runs in 4.3 overs.
Only two batters made double figures as Shaveen Ranawaka (4/14) and Jawid Khan (3/18) destroyed Beaconsfield.
Jagveer Hayer was dismissed for a duck, but Khan went big to score 41 not out, while Damith Perera (16 not out) also guided the team home to win by nine wickets.
A consistent bowling effort from Berwick saw the side easily defeat Parkmore after keeping the Pirates to just 119, and making the runs only two wickets down.
Michael Wallace led from the front with a top score of 43 not out in the victory for the Bears.
Dandenong West won a thriller against Narre South after bowling the Lions out just one run short of their target, with just two balls remaining in the innings.
The Bulls batted first and thanks to strong performances from Mohit Mandora (58) and Nipunaka Fonseka (37), the side made 185 after 45 overs – Jawed Hussaini taking 4/27 for the Lions.
Narre South started poorly but despite being 4/60, skipper Jeevan Mendis dug in to score 49, while Adam Snelling (28) also contributed well.
Joel Zietsman took the final wicket of the game as he got the wicket of Liam Sheehan (7) to win a second game for the season – Dinesh Kulasekara was the pick of the Bulls’ bowlers with 3/35.
