Waratah powers to win
LAST season’s Darwin Premier Grade cricket struggler Waratah continued its rise when it won its fifth consecutive match, beating host Tracy Village by 42 runs.
Second and third placed Southern Districts and Palmerston also won their matches comfortably to turn the competition into a threehorse race.
Palmerston skipper Alex Bleakley led from the front with an unbeaten 108 in his side’s score of 6-209.
But it was the Red Caps of Waratah who were celebrating a hard-fought win over the Villagers last night on a wicket favouring the spin bowlers.
Captain Isaac Conway’s decision to bat after winning the toss looked shaky when the off spin of Coby Edmondstone (3-16) and Harsh Shah (3-24) reduced his side to 6-109.
But Conway’s 48 at the top of the order and an equally determined unbeaten 40 from playingcoach Udara Weerasinghe got the Red caps to 152.
The home side got to 33 without loss before the rot set in, the next 10 wickets falling for 77 runs as the Tahs spin bowlers took over.
Weerasinghe, dropped at slip before he had scored, said the win had proved to be a tough outing against a home side that made them earn every run.
“It was important someone hung in there on a wicket that was not prepared well and resembled a cow paddock,’’ he told the Sunday Territorian after taking 2-25 with his offspin.
Brother Madura snared 2-39 and Ishara Dilsha Gange took 2-19, both of them also spinners.
Bleakley’s century shone at Nightcliff Oval where his 106-run sixth-wicket partnership with Jake Baker (42) won their side the match.
His 13 boundaries and a huge six in a 112-ball stay ensured a tough run chase for the young Tigers, who battled to 139 before their last wicket fell.
Kieran Toner’s left-arm fast mediums (4-22) and Hamish Martin’s left-arm finger spin (3-20) undid the Tigers.
And Southern Districts recovered from a precarious 6-76 to beat Darwin by 61 runs.
Big hitting allrounder Corey Kelly’s 78 from 62 balls, when he hit the boundary five times and cleared it on four occasions, was the game breaker.
Darwin skipper Luke Shelton’s 81 from 70 balls was just as impressive.
But wickets fell regularly against an accurate Districts bowling attack which hit the stumps six times.