By RUSSELL BENNETT
WGCA PREMIER DIVISION
REVIEW – ROUND 7 (Day 1)
PAKENHAM v TOORADIN
TO say the first day’s play between Pakenham and Tooradin had to be seen to be believed could well be the biggest understatement of 2015. Yes, we’re calling it.
A staggering 20 wickets fell in just 75 overs with the Lions, despite scoring just 176 in their first innings, well on top.
Pakenham and Tooradin have established a strong top-tier rivalry since the Premier era began in 2009/10. To this point the Gulls lead with a 6-2 head-to-head record but they’ll need to pull something remarkable out of the bag to increase that this week.
Still, after what day one produced we’re not ruling anything out.
Batting first at Toomuc Reserve, the Lions lost a steady stream of wickets throughout their first innings. If not for yet another brilliant century from in-form star Chris Smith (107), Pakenham would have been staring down the barrel of a sub-100 score.
But we all know cricket isn’t built on hypotheticals, and thankfully so for the Seagulls because they grassed a chance to remove Smith at square leg soon after his innings began.
After that chance went begging, a determined Smith set about making the visitors pay – notching his third century of the young season. His innings included some of everything – stoic defence mixed in with some scintillating stroke play. He placed a premium on his wicket, but – as he has done all season to date – was lightning fast to punish anything too short or overpitched.
The Lions were 6/132 at tea, and Smith had scored 78 of those. Without his regular opening partner Russell Lehman (suspension) in the line-up, extra run-scoring responsibility fell to the Pakenham middle-order. But despite a string of starts, no one other than Smith could pass 20. Aaron Avery (3/39), Dylan Sutton (3/53) and Josh Lownds (2/36) handled the bulk of the bowling workload for Tooradin and did so brilliantly – making the Lions play, and with steady pressure forcing them into mistakes and poor shot choices.
“I really don’t know what to say,” Lions skipper Dom Paynter told the Gazette after the first day’s play.
“I thought we were still maybe 200 runs short of where we wanted to be.
“It was definitely a day for the cricket gods.”
Paynter said Smith was “shattered” when he was eventually dismissed by Sutton for 107, given how many overs were still to be bowled in the day’s play. But that pursuit of excellence is exactly what makes him such a gun player. He owed his side nothing.
The vast majority of the Lions wickets fell to catches behind the stumps, and Paynter is stumped as to why.
But pressure does funny things – just ask Tooradin.
“Look at the two sides on paper and you’d expect a tight contest,” Paynter said.
“You wouldn’t expect 20/220 on a fast ground on a nice, hot day.”
Paynter said the Lions remained positive in the innings break – determined to keep the pressure on by continually bowling balls in dangerous areas, rather than falling in love with bowling “wicket balls” every delivery.
“We just bowled balls that we knew we wouldn’t like to face,” he said.
“We went out there positive, believing in our improvement from previous weeks.”
What happened next was 23.5 overs of mayhem … Tooradin was rolled for just 59.
Jack Ryan, who’d bowled particularly well in recent weeks without getting the reward of a big back of wickets, was just devastating – finishing with 5/25 from 12 overs.
“His spell was just top shelf,” Paynter said.
“It was fast and aggressive, but also controlled and measured.
“I was exactly what the team needed.”
And he was brilliantly supported by man-of-the-moment Smith, with 4/12 from his seven overs.
“He always puts the ball in the right spots and gets good shape,” Paynter said.
“He doesn’t let batsmen leave too many alone.”
Overall, Paynter said he was rapt with his side’s constant pressure which caused a snowball effect throughout the Tooradin innings.
But the Lions are careful not to get too carried away with one day’s play, given they still have the second day of this clash yet to play out, plus a one-dayer in Round 8.
“We have enough respect for each other – we know we still have two hard days of cricket left to play out,” he said.
“If we lose the next two days then this has all been for nothing.
“We’ve got a lot to prove to ourselves – that we can keep performing consistently.”
Paynter said Saturday was “easily” the weirdest day of cricket he’d been involved in, and his counterpart Tom Hussey seemed to agree.
“I actually thought we bowled pretty well,” he said.
“But Smitty (Smith) batted very well throughout.
“At the start of the game if you’d have told me we’d keep them to 180, I’d take that every day of the week.”
Hussey (0) said he played a “horrendous” shot to Jack Ryan early and his side just continued to lose steady wickets from that point on.
“It was the combination of a few things,” he said.
“Pakky put the ball in the right areas and they also moved it around a bit.
“We were probably found out for a lack of experience – guys weren’t using their feet and were getting stuck on the crease.
“We tended to follow the ball once it moved.”
Hussey said he hadn’t had “anything like that” happen in his time at Tooradin.
“It was very disappointing, but it was a very good lesson for us,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of work left to do but we’ll regroup and go again.
“They’ve got 100 runs on us so there’s still every chance we could be sent back in.
“If we are, we’ll need to bat our arses off to avoid an outright but this is one those things that’s shown us what we need to work on.
“I’d rather it happened now instead of in the first week of the finals.”
CARDINIA v MERINDA PARK
The Bulls have a fight on their hands if they’re to secure the points at home over Merinda Park.
The Cobras batted first, amassing 152 in a shade over 60 overs but at 1/60 they had laid a superb platform to build from.
“We just consistently lost wickets,” said Merinda Park skipper Danny Diwell, who along with Anthony Craddock (56), was one of only two batsmen to pass 20 despite five getting double-figure starts.
“We did speak about batting out the full 80 overs prior to the game but (Dwayne) Doig was excellent with his six wickets and young (Travis) Wheller was really impressive too.
“They’re going to bowl well in tandem all season. Dwayne’s variations are pretty good, but young Trav turns the ball a long way when he wants to.
“He’s very consistent for a 17-year-old.”
Doig and Wheller bowled more than 40 overs between them, finishing with 6/70 and 3/26 respectively.
Doig has clearly been the form bowler of the competition since returning to the Bulls and – ominously for his opponents – is showing absolutely no sign of letting up.
“They’ve got that luxury of having two very good spinners and they’ll bowl plenty of overs between them all season,” Diwell said.
“They just put it on a dime from ball one, and we’ll see if Dylan (Cuthbertson) can do that for us this week.”
The Bulls lost two early wickets late on the first day’s play and will resume at a precarious 2/35 with vice-captain Alex Nooy (24 not out) leading the way so far.
Cardinia still has plenty of firepower to come – including skipper Neil Barfuss, Ben Maroney, Ben Darose and Doig – but Diwell knows his side is well and truly in the match.
“Their batting probably hasn’t set the world on fire so far this season, but with the likes of Maroney and Darose they’ve got some real quality to come,” he said.
“For us it’s all about getting those blokes out early.”
UPPER BEACONSFIELD v EMERALD
The Maroons had some added motivation to perform on Saturday – with a 15-year reunion of their famous one-run B Grade premiership win over Emerald taking place as the current crops from each club battled it out in the middle.
And each one of the 11 victorious Maroons who celebrated premiership glory were able to witness a spectacular bounce-back from Scott Pitcher’s side.
“We just had to take the positives out of last week (against Kooweerup), move forward and get better,” said the Upper Beaconsfield skipper.
“It was a really good response from the boys, I thought.”
The Maroons ripped through Emerald’s lineup – dismissing the Bombers for just 89 in 38 overs. Frustratingly for the visitors, their biggest resistance with the bat came from Trent Rolfs (16) and Clinton Marsh (16 not out) at the tail-end of the innings.
Chad McDonald was the pick of the Maroons’ attack with 4/20 in a shade under nine overs.
Pitcher said it was the best he’d ever seen the 16-year-old bowl.
“He just ran in with freedom and with confidence,” he said.
Tommy Tyrrell (2/21) and Pitcher (2/17) himself bowled well in tandem yet again, but the skipper reserved special praise for Jayden Joyce (2/16) who he described as “very under-done” with the ball.
“He just hasn’t been able to get his run-up right but on Saturday he really started to hit his straps,” Pitcher said.
And the Maroons have identified a big part of what’s been holding them back against Premier’s strongest sides in recent times.
“Our attitude against the likes of Kooweerup and Cardinia just hasn’t been the same as it has against Emerald and Cranbourne Meadows – even Merinda Park.
“We have to not worry about who we’re playing and just make sure our performances are consistent every week.”
The Maroons have a strong of particularly young players – including the likes of McDonald, Jack McHale and Corey Joyce – followed by some in their early to mid-20s, and Pitcher and Bathiya Perera as the older heads.
And promisingly for them, on Saturday the bulk of them stepped up and contributed.
Super talented duo Matt Hutson (42) and Julian Bayard (31) will stride out to the crease this week as their side resumes on 4/124, while Rob North also chipped in with a valuable 25 at the top of the order. Perera missed out, uncharacteristically, but that could be the biggest positive for his side in a way – the number of players who stepped up around him.
CRANBOURNE MEADOWS v KOOWEERUP
The Demons have well and truly been awoken from their early-season slumber and they were in no mood to take mercy on the Rebels on Saturday in the final game of the Premier round.
On the hunt for outright points, Michael Giles’ side rolled through Cranbourne Meadows for 118 in just 42 overs.
But Rebels all-rounder Shameera Weerasinghe was sensational with 81 as wickets tumbled right around him. He was one of only three batsmen to score more than 10 as Demons all-rounder Matt Davey showed his ruthless streak with 4/8 from just six overs.
Giles and opening batting partner Jake Bardwell then set out in search of quick runs to send the Rebels back in prior to stumps. The pair stormed their way to 108 before Giles fell just short of a half-century. He declared a short time later at 3/122 – following the dismissal of 14-year-old debutant Mitch Cammarano (6) – with Bardwell not out on 56.
But Weerasinghe’s Herculean effort with the willow wasn’t done yet. The Rebels will resume this week on 4/49 … and he’s unbeaten on 42. The quality of his performances with the bat this season to date haven’t been lost on any Premier on-lookers, particularly with the difficulties facing his side.
