Division 1
Drouin 198 v Jindivick 1/59 Drouin recovered well after a poor start with the bat at home,, however Jindivick fought back late in the day to take slight ascendency.
Winning the toss and batting, the Hawks were in desperate trouble early as Hussain Ali (2-65) and Dananja Madushanka (3-47) routed the top order to leave Drouin struggling on 4-48 early.
Experienced campaigners Paul Timewell and Jake Harper were left with the clean-up operation, as they fought hard and put away the bad ball to push the score to 101 before Timewell was removed by the swing of Luke Hume (2-30).
Harper pushed on to a season-high 61 in a return to form, and when he fell to leave the score at 7-144, Drouin were once again in need of rearguard action.
Simon Gardiner provided this as the wickets fell, launching a quick-fire, counterattacking 43 to give the Hawks a defendable 198.
In reply Jindivick had 11 nervy overs to bat. No one told Morne O’Donoghue this though, as the attacking opening batsman crunched his way to 50* at the close of play with the Jumping Jacks already making a dent into the score, closing play on 1-59 with 140 to get next week.
Warriors in box seat
Ellinbank v Western Park 316 Western Park has taken the box seat on the batting-friendly Ellinbank ground at the weekend.
However some vital wickets late in the day has kept the Eagles in with a considerable chance of continuing their unbeaten run.
Western Park won the toss and elected to bat in this match between the two remaining undefeated teams, and pickings were slim in the first half of the day for Ellinbank’s bowlers as the Warriors went into tea at 1-118. Dale Fawcett (15) was removed early. Joel Batson (39) was removed shortly after tea with the score on 152, caught off the bowling of Tom Robertson (3-98) as spin was the method of attack for the Ellinbank bowlers.
However Matthew Wakefield (107) continued on his merry way, smashing the ball to all parts as he hit his maiden century for the season, crushing anything short in typical fashion.
Once he fell however, Ben Spicer took over for the Eagles as he picked up 5-58 through the latter overs to drag Ellinbank back into the contest.
Sanjaya Gangodawila (79 off 59) was at his freakish best, as the collapse at the other end proved no barrier to his reverse-sweeping and switch-hitting ways, pushing the score up to 293 before a late cameo from Troy Lehman (23*) helped Western Park to an imposing 316.
It was a score that may have been much larger if it wasn’t for the spin duo of Spicer and Robertson, finishing with eight wickets between them.