Laurimar’s Scott Toull watches his cover drive roll to the boundary.

By Jackson Russell

LAURIMAR suffered its first loss of the Diamond Valley Cricket Association’s Mash Shield season despite a strong innings from opener Ashley Williams, losing to Rosebank by five wickets at home.

In its first match back on the main oval since its redevelopment, Laurimar won the toss and batted but suffered an early speed bump when captain Jake Zerella was caught for 12 after a 27-run opening partnership.

The Power really got rolling when Williams combined with Daniel Roberts to put on 69 for the second wicket before Roberts was stumped for 21.

After making 83 with 14 boundaries, Williams was caught to end a 54-run partnership with Rian Boddy with Laurimar 3/150.
Boddy attempted to keep the momentum up, making 40 before his was dismissed leg before wicket at 5/177.

Laurimar attempted to score some quick late runs to no avail – Michael Peters was caught at long on right before the end of the innings as the Power finished at 6/189 after 40 overs.

The Power was able to make a solid start with the ball, limiting Rosebank’s opening partnership to just 36 when Nathan Woods bowled Buwaneka Ekanayake for 18.

However, the visitors were able to make solid partnerships throughout their innings, putting on 41 for the second wicket before Michael Peters dismissed Jarryd Dimarco leg before wicket for 26.

Rosebank followed up with a 68-run stand between Rocky Sharma and Dushan Wickramarathna, which ended when Peters dismissed Sharma leg before wicket after he made 64 with Rosebank 3/145.

Rosebank continued to move the innings along as Wickramarathna made 48 before he was caught off Steven Mitchell following a 25-run fourth wicket partnership.

The Power was unable to wrestle momentum away from Rosebank, which completed the run chase with 11 balls to spare and five wickets in hand.

Zerella said it was disappointing to drop a game, but hoped it would be the Power’s only one.

“You’re always going to have a game where you don’t perform as well as you should but hopefully that’s the only one,” he said.

“We batted really well, but I think there were just periods of time in the field where we let ourselves down.

“That being said, they’re a really strong side and batted extremely well.

“We just made some errors in the field and probably didn’t bowl as well as we should’ve. Just for short periods, but they took full advantage of it when we weren’t performing our best.”

Whittlesea cruised to an easy 144-run win over South Morang on the road on the back of a Nathan Fowler century.

The Eagles did it easy, with Brody Bell also making 63 as the Eagles recorded 6/238.

Wickets came thick and fast for Whittlesea, bowling South Morang out for just 94 from 53 overs.

Nathan Somerville took 4/12 from eight overs with two maidens.

Mernda scored its first win of the Money Shield season, with a 34-run win over Bundoora at home.

Opener Dushantha Ranatunga made 85 and captain James Taylor 49 as the Demons made 177 batting first.

Thomas Hall and Alexander Mitris each took three wickets as Mernda bowled Bundoora out for 143 with four balls left.