Swans continue to fire

Josh Dowling, pictured earlier this season, is part of an in-form Casey-South Melbourne bowling group. Picture: ROB CAREW 185947 Picture: ROB CAREW

By Nick Creely

AROUND THE GROUNDS

VICTORIAN PREMIER CRICKET

ROUND 11

“I don’t think we’ve put together a complete package of a performance yet, with both bat, ball and in the field, yet we’re still winning games.”

Casey-South Melbourne skipper Luke Wells certainly has the confidence that the Swans can knock over anyone on their day, and when his group does fully gel, look out.

The seventh placed Swans landed yet another scalp on Saturday, further reinforcing their stunning improvement by putting together their most “professional” performance of the year against Northcote at Bill Lawry Oval.

Off the back of their gun skipper – who compiled another stellar 87 off 112 balls – the Swans won the toss and posted a healthy 8/227 off their 50 overs on a slow pitch.

But it was with the ball that Wells’ group once again impressed, defending their modest total for the second week in a row to restrict the Dragons to 221 after bowling them out in the final over of the day.

In a stunningly even bowling effort, Jackson Fry (2/53) removed dangerous openers Solomon Mire (21) and Mark Phelan (55), Josh Dowling (2/55) did a fine job through the middle to continue his great season, while spinners Lachie Sperling (2/37) and Wells (1/35) each kept things tight too, and managed to snare three wickets between them.

But, once again, spearhead Nathan Lambden’s (3/36) brilliant form came to the fore, finishing off the game like gun bowlers do, to surge into 12th on the Premier Cricket wicket list. The big quick now has 20 wickets at 22.9, with an impressive strike rate of 33.5

“I feel like he’s made a lot of progress, and he’s adapting his game to conditions really well,” Wells said of Lambden’s season.

“For example on the weekend, the pitch was particularly suited to slower balls, so for a guy who wants to bowl as fast as he can, he bowled a load of slower balls, and got the rewards.”

After another close win – one that sees them move to a 7-3 record and within five points of Melbourne Uni in fourth – Wells praised the bowlers for their performance, and said that the recent close victories and the ability to defend any score is pleasing.

“It’s been good, and pretty stressful, I wouldn’t mind a low maintenance, less stressful win, but we’ve defended well so far in the one-day stuff,” he said with a chuckle.

“We’ve got reasonable totals together without necessarily getting a match-winning one, so we’ve worked hard to defend those scores around the 230 mark – we’ve got a good blueprint at the moment, Nathan Lambden and Jacko Fry have bowled well up top, Josh Dowling as first change seamer has been good, and Lachie (Sperling) and myself have both been pretty economical.”

Wells said that the Swans will only get better as the red-ball cricket starts to heat up again, and can’t wait to see what his group can produce in the back-end of the season.

“We’re a really talented group, and winning’s a habit, and so is losing, so the guys just expect to win, and they know what they need to do to win,” he said.

“We’ve taken down some top teams – we beat Fitzroy, almost beat Dandenong in a two-dayer, beat St Kilda and other sides, and it proves that on our day, we can beat anyone in the league.

“I’m looking forward to getting into the two-day stuff, we’ve played a lot of one-day cricket – I feel like we’re potentially a better two-day outfit.”

Dandenong, meanwhile, have fallen to 10th on the Premier table after suffering yet another loss, this time to Camberwell Magpies.

Skipper Tom Donnell sent the Maggies into face the music, but half centuries to Simon Hill (64), Lewis McManus (51) and Tom Russ (66 not out) lifted the home side to 6/238 off their 50, with Panthers champ James Nanopoulos (2/40) the pick of the bowlers.

Key pair Brett Forsyth (14) and Donnell (31) were removed before they could do much damage, and the Panthers slipped to 4/57 before Nanopoulos brought the game back to life.

The aggressive left-hander slammed an unbeaten 78 off 90 balls, but ultimately ran out of partners, with the Panthers bowled out for 221 after a late Darren Pattinson (28 off 25) also helped the visitors get close.

But, the Panthers will need to return to their winning ways if they are to feature in the finals and defend their premiership, and get a great chance to test themselves against premiership fancy Fitzroy-Doncaster on Saturday at Shepley Oval.

VICTORIAN SUB-DISTRICT – NORTH/EAST

ROUND 10 (DAY ONE)

Endeavour Hills are in with a chance to snare another victory and potentially climb off the bottom of the ladder after a solid opening day of cricket against Ivanhoe.

The Eagles rolled the home side for just 189 in the 62nd over, with Tallha Ahmed (4/44) starring with the ball.

At stumps, the Eagles clawed their way to 0/30 off 12 overs, and will be eyeing off some crucial points on Saturday.

Noble Park, meanwhile, leaked 238 runs against Bayswater at Bayswater Oval, despite getting off to a strong start.

Kalhath Ilippuli Arachchige (4/22) and Nilochana Perera (3/40) did a fine job with the ball for the Parkers.

MPCA – PROVINCIAL

ROUND 10

Pearcedale were undone by a brilliant Mornington performance on Saturday, with the Panthers still stuck on the bottom of the ladder.

The Panthers fielded first and simply couldn’t stop the Dogs, who racked up 2/222 off their 40 off the back of an unbeaten 92 to star batsman Ben Clements.

The home side never looked likely and were in deep trouble at one stage after slumping to 6/35 after stunningly being 0/34 at one stage, but managed to claw their way to 113.

In other results, Tom Hussey (49) led Langwarrin (9/164) to another victory against Peninsula OB (129), Mt Eliza (3/138) were a class above of Flinders (9/137) at Emil Madsen, while Sorrento (7/170) got the job done against fellow powerhouse Baxter (133).