Plenty Valley kicked off its Victorian Premier Cricket women’s season with a bang on Sunday afternoon.
The Bats won the toss and elected to bat in their first T20 of the season, sending Sri Lankan recruit Umasha Timseshani in to do what she does best.
Timseshani and opening partner Nipuni Hansika wasted no time at the crease, putting up a first wicket stand of 81 runs, before Hansika fell for 24.
Timseshani then really started to get into her groove, smashing the ball to all parts of the ground, bringing up her ton, finishing with an unbeaten 123 run stand off 78 deliveries, including 15 fours and four sixes. Setting the Rams a target of 180.
The Bats’ dominance continued with the ball in hand, with Shivani Narendran picking up a wicket with just the fourth ball of the innings.
Skipper Maryam Omar was fantastic from the outset, taking a wicket with the first delivery of her spell, from there she went on to take another three wickets for 24 runs from her four overs, one of them being a wicket maiden.
Timseshani full of confidence, was also great with the ball taking one for 13 from her four overs.
The Rams got no where close to the Bats score, finishing on 9/95 after 20 overs, losing by 84 runs.
There were positive signs from Greenvale in the men’s competition as it began its season.
The Kangaroos were sent into bowl by Parahn, keeping them to 8/265 at the conclusion of the 50 overs.
Young leg spinner, Ivan Zmak was tidy with the ball, picking up two wickets and only conceding 55 runs from his 10 overs.
Kalhan Sineth was the Kangaroos’ best with the ball taking three for 36.
With the bat the Kangaroos struggled to get a partnership going with a lot of their top order making starts without converting it into a big score, Haseeb Qureshi top scored with 42.
The Kangaroos finished on 9/201, giving Parahan a 64 run win.
