Rain denies Drysdale top position
RAIN denied Drysdale the chance to go to top of the ladder, with its one-day clash against Jan Juc finishing in a draw after play was abandoned.
The game hung in the balance when play was called off, with both sides eyeing victory as Jan Juc sat at 4-56, requiring a further 69 from 17 overs to win.
Earlier Drysdale posted a total of 124, batting first after extreme heat had prevented the first day’s play from going ahead the previous week, with batsman Jason Mallett providing the backbone of the innings with an impressive knock of 59 in the wet conditions.
After opener Jason Peoples fell for a duck, first-drop Mallet combined with Jason Malcolm (15 runs) for a 41-run partnership, but that was as long as anyone would join him at the crease as wickets fell cheaply.
A band of heavy rain forced players from the field for a period of 45 minutes, shortening the innings by 10 overs, before Drysdale added some much-needed runs from the remaining seven overs after Josh Norman (4-5) and Jared Carr (4-42) had had the better of them so far.
Openers Carr and Iva Priest then got Jan Juc under way with scores of 13 and 14 respectively as they began the chase, but some impressive bowling by David Sykes and Dillion Justice, who both shared figures of 2-16, had scores neck and neck before increasing rain forced players off the field for good.
The result left Drysdale captaincoach Leigh Allan disappointed with what was a missed opportunity due to consecutive Saturdays of polarising weather.
“I felt like we had control of the game and we weren’t far away from breaking through again, but they could quite easily say the same thing,” Allan said after the match.
“We were able to peg them back and take some pretty good wickets so I felt like we were in control of the game and well on the way to winning.”