Lions tamed at home

By Todd Whelan

Darley Cricket Club

Underdogs Mt Clear toppled the ladder leading Lions in convincing style to the tune of nine wickets at Darley Park last Saturday.

The visitors won the battle with bat and ball to stun their more fancied rivals and in the process, reduce the Lions advantage to just four points ahead of looming Wendouree and Naps-Sebas who enjoyed wins at the weekend.

The emphatic result amounted to no excuses after the Lions won the toss and elected to bat on a wicket that provided seamers opportunities with the new ball placed in the right areas. And the visitors were justly rewarded for their discipline and were aided at times with impatience and poor judgement from one of the more potent batting line-ups in the comp.

Lions coach Brian Wheelahan was fully aware of the situation at the halfway mark having watched his boys plummet to be all out for just 105 in a tick over 30 overs.

“It simply wasn’t good enough,” he said.

“Being bowled out with almost 20 overs still remaining was disappointing.”

Clearly perplexed, Wheelahan conceded they were outclassed on an off day.

“It certainly wasn’t (the true version of) us,” Wheelahan said.

“The boys are hurting and already itching to bounce back ahead of a return to two-day cricket this week against quality opposition, Naps-Sebas.”

Defending 105 was always going to be an uphill battle for the Lions but history suggests that it wasn’t beyond them.

When strike opener Madushanka Ekanayake claimed his 18th wicket of the season to have the visitors 1/4, there was a sniff of an improbable victory.

Credit to the fifth placed Mt Clear who backed up their bowling performance to remain wicketless before reeling in the miserly total.

Wheelahan acknowledged the efforts of his bowlers despite the nine wicket defeat.

“Our bowling wasn’t too bad but with only 105 to defend it was always going to be difficult,” he said.

Needless to add the dual Premiership coach was keen to move on.

“We need to park this result, learn from it and embrace the challenges in front of us for the remainder of the season,” he said.

BCA 1st GRADE – (R13)
Darley 105, Overs 30.2. H. Wickramasinghe 27, D. Chandima 20.
Mt Clear 1/107, Overs 21.3. M. Ekanayake 1/17.
Darley lost by 9 wickets.

BCA 2nd GRADE – (R10)
North Ballarat 7/170, Overs 45.1. B. Ward 3/39, L. Cornford 2/31.
Darley 5/171, Overs 35.3. L. Cornford 62, S. McAndrew 37*.
Darley WON by 5 wickets.

BCA 3rd GRADE – (R10)
Darley 7/165, Overs 40. D. Hoey 50, J. Wilkie 42.
East Ballarat 5/166, Overs 35.5. A. McAndrew 1/16, T. Cox 1/19.
Darley lost by 5 wickets.

BCA 4th GRADE – (R10)
Darley 8/182, Overs 40. T. Gallagher 83, DN Hynes 45.
Wendouree 6/184, Overs 38. F. Kilmartin 2/11.
Darley lost by 4 wickets.

BCA 5th GRADE – (R13)
Creswick-Imperials 7/174, Overs 40. C. Amor 3/7, Kilmartin 2/26.
Darley 74, Overs 32.2. C. Amor 14, R. Amor 12.
Darley lost by 100 runs.