IT was a tricky weekend for many of the City of Whittlesea’s teams to negotiate in the Diamond Valley Cricket Association, particularly in the Shield competitions, as wet weather also played its part.
In Money Shield, Mernda’s hopes of back-to-back wins was washed away by Rivergum at Kelynack Recreation Reserve.
Batting first, Gareth Sharp made a strong start for Mernda with 58, while David Chesterton added 39, but there was little support otherwise as the Demons were bowled out for 165.
The Dees had little answer for Dale Rigby and Matthew Kiely at the top of the order as the Burra put on a 129-run stand for the first wicket, and despite Geordi Summers taking 3/36, the Demons lost by six wickets, with Rivergum making 4/166 with two overs to spare.
Laurimar was outclassed by Mill Park to the tune of 35 runs at Redleap Reserve.
The Power looked to be in a decent spot when they had the Tigers 4/77, but a 62-run partnership got the game back their opposition’s way.
Austin Welsh, Jack Sheahan, Luke Richardson, Abhi Patel and Saurin Sandeep Sharma all took two wickets apiece as the Tigers made 182.
In response, Justin Billing was the only batter who provided some resistance for Laurimar at the top of the order, making 27, while Welsh and Cooper Lewin provided some late hitting to make 16 and 20 respectively as Laurimar could only muster 9/147 in response, while sitting at 8/97 at one stage.
South Morang were in a decent spot to make some noise against ladder-leaders Lower Eltham at Mill Park Lakes Reserve, but despite some Terry Liddicutt heroics, fell 31 runs short.
Liddicutt dominated with 6/31 off eight overs as he almost single-handedly helped restrict Lower to 9/148, and he also top scored with the bat, ending up with 27 off 38 deliveries.
Lachlan Gatherer scored 26 and Karl Heckmann added 23, but it wasn’t enough as South Morang were rolled for 117.
In a low-scoring F grade encounter, Whittlesea did enough to claim a four-wicket win over Mill Park at AF Walker Reserve.
Again, it was Whittlesea’s deep bowling attack which worked well together, with Tharindu Harith Withana taking 2/21 and Nathan Heaney 2/31 as Mill Park was restricted to 8/119 off its 40 overs.
A brilliant 50 from Luke Carroll in response was the ticket for Whittlesea, combining well with Mohamed Isam Rafeek (33) as Whittlesea did the job, scoring 6/123 in 37.3 overs.
Laurimar had a standout result in E grade, winning by 110 runs over Bundoora Park at Laurimar Town Park, thanks largely to the exploits of Michael Peters, who scored 93 off 48 deliveries, while young gun Harrison Rodda aded 77 off 65, and Reece Emmins 85 off 98.
Mernda had no luck in B grade, losing to Riverside by eight wickets at Waterview Recreation Reserve.
It was better news for its F grade team, defeating South Morang by three wickets at Mill Park Lakes.
Vikas Kakkar took 3/10, while Stephen Otter’s 2/14 and Ahmed Zafar’s 2/18 also helped matters as Mernda rolled the Lions for 107, with Arnav Kadian top-scoring for South Morang with 23.
In a tense run chase, Rob Virtue’s 31 at the top of the order gave Mernda a platform, before winning with eight balls to spare.
Nick Tsimiklis took 2/12, while Arnav Kadian took 2/14 and Jaskaran Singh 2/21 for the Lions.
All other grades below F grade had a bye for the Melbourne Cup long weekend.