THE second round of the Diamond Valley Cricket Association wrapped up on Saturday in fine weather.
In Mash Shield, South Morang recorded its first win of the new season, defeating Mill Park by four wickets at Mill Park Lakes Reserve.
The Lions did enough to record first innings points via Lachlan Gatherer’s 45 and Seyon Uruththiran’s unbeaten 33, which allowed them to pass Mill Park’s 176 before eventually calling the game after losing their seventh wicket while ahead by 13 runs, scoring 7/189.
Laurimar was almightily close to defending 121 at Laurimar Town Park, before succumbing to Lower Eltham by two wickets.
Lower Eltham did look comfortable for much of the day, but a game changing spell from Luke Richardson and Jayden Clifford saw it lose 5/20 in no time at all to sit nervously on 8/110.
However, Lower Eltham did enough to score the 12 runs it needed to take victory, finishing on 8/128.
Richardson took 3/16 and Clifford 2/30 in their valiant attempt to secure a result for the Power.
In Money Shield, Mernda could not find the key wickets in its loss to Banyule at Beverley Road Reserve.
Banyule scored at a steady pace all afternoon and was able to pass Mernda’s total of 186 with just over seven overs to spare left in the day.
Ryan Marnell, Lachlan Taylor and Caleb Leckstrom took one wicket apiece for the Demons.
Whittlesea’s first XI continued its good start to the year by defeating Bundoora United by five wickets at NJ Telfer Reserve.
The Eagles elected to bowl first, but it looked for a large part of the first half of the innings as though it would backfire as the Bulldogs raced to 3/148.
However, Nuwan Madhusanka Vidana Kankanamge’s three wickets helped turn the tide for the Eagles, who restricted Bundoora United to 7/180 off its 35 overs.
Whittlesea again had a hero with the bat for a second week in succession after losing 3/6 in the early stages of its innings, with Sisipsara Dehigaspitiya making an unbeaten 87, which included nine fours and four sixes, as the Eagles easily chased down the target to score 5/185 in 30.3 overs.
In other games around the league, Mernda and South Morang met twice in two grades, with the Demons taking a low-scoring 16-run win in the F2 grade battle at Mill Park Lakes Reserve’s synthetic oval, 117 to 101, while the G3 grade game went the way of the Lions at Edgars Creek Reserve, scoring a 20-run victory, 9/114 to 4/94.
The Demons would otherwise win two of their three games, with the B grade team scoring a 45-run win over Montmorency in a high-scoring game, 300 to 255. The E grade team would take a six-wicket win over Riverside, 4/195 to 193, while the Demons’ G1 West team would lose by 17 runs to Rosebank, 197 to 7/214.
South Morang had a mixed weekend, winning two of its five lower-grade matches.
C grade was defeated outright by Bundoora United, with the Lions bundled out for 122 and 142 in losing to the Bulldogs outright by 28 runs. E grade had a much better result, however, taking a solid 130-run victory over Lower Eltham in a high-scoring affair, 8/364 to 234. There was no luck for the Lions’ G2 grade team, however, losing 8/162 to 4/164 to Bundoora Park.
Laurimar also scored wins in half of its games. In D grade, the Power’s 9/278 was more than enough to take victory against Lower Plenty, who could only muster up 8/205 in response.
In F1 grade, the Power lost a low-scoring game to Eltham, 6/113 to 7/118, while they fell agonisingly short in chasing down Lalor Stars’ 198 to G1 West, scoring 5/195 in response. There was better news for Laurimar’s G2 grade team, however, scoring a four-wicket win over Montmorency, 6/125 to 7/124.
Whittlesea completed a clean sweep of its weekend with a solid seven-wicket victory in its first game at AF Walker Reserve for the year, scoring 3/156 to comfortably chase down Thomastown’s 7/155.
In the North Metro Cricket Association, the third round of games was played on Saturday morning.
Despite a fine 50 off just 23 deliveries by Emma Leatham, South Morang Blue was unable to find enough scoring power to defeat North Balwyn Willows at Mill Park Lakes Reserve, falling by seven wickets.
The Lions scored 6/122 off their 20 overs, before North Balwyn ran down the target comfortably, scoring 3/124 off 16 overs.
Tahnee Pevitt was the Lions’ best performer with the ball, taking 1/12 off two overs.
Laurimar Black had no answer to Epping, losing by 67 runs.
The Power could not stop Brooke Nam, who scored an unbeaten 50 before retiring, or Alicia Gorman, who scored 39 as Epping scored 5/144, with Poshika Joon taking 3/17 off her four overs.
Despite some disciplined batting from Phoebe McKenna, who scored 33, and Victoria Mitchell, who finished unbeaten on 32, the Power couldn’t make enough runs as Epping restricted the Power to 1/77 off their 20 overs.
It was a similar story in division three.
South Morang Maroon had a thrilling encounter against Olympic Fillies in a low-scoring match, with the Lions making 6/57 off their 20 overs, before Olympic Fillies also had difficulty scoring runs.
Sandy Iyer had a great spell, taking 3/10 off four overs, while Vrishti Mongrolia took 2/12 off 3.2 overs, but Fillies found just enough to score the runs they needed, scoring 8/58 off 18.2 overs.
Laurimar Teal was run down by North Eltham.
The Power scored 7/98 off their 20 overs, with Toni Rule top scoring with 25, but the Wanderers were far too good with the bat, scoring 2/99 off 13.3 overs.
