Harper Sercombe
Westmeadows is in an uphill battle against one of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division’s best teams.
The Warriors faced Deer Park in the first half of their two-day clash on Saturday afternoon.
After winning the toss and batting the Warriors lost two key wickets early, with captain-coach Donovan Pell and brother Michael Pell being dismissed.
However, the Warriors rebuilt from there with Thilina Masmulla (56) and Pawan Wickramasinghe (73) putting on a great partnership to help get the Warriors to 256.
The Lions dismissed the Warriors after 66 overs and finished day one at 0-57.
Warriors president Jeff Hubbard said it was a disappointing day.
“I’m not going to say that we were happy with the total, we were 2-140 so to only make 260 from a base like that is disappointing,” he said.
“The most disappointing thing though was the three run outs, in two-day cricket the last thing we needed was three run outs.
“Two hundred and sixty is a competitive total but we were hoping to make more than that.
“I guess the plus side was that Donovan didn’t make any runs and most of our scores this year have been off the back of a big score from the captain-coach, so it was nice to see some other guys contribute.”
With the wicket playing nicely and Deer Park home to two of the competition’s best batsmen in Daniel Startori and Dean Russ, it will be a challenging day in the field for the Warriors come Saturday.
“It was a very good batting wicket, so we expect it to be very hard to defend the 260, Deer Park are excellent opposition,” Hubbard said.
“They’re an unbelievably talented line up but one ball can change everything in a cricket match.
“If we bowl well and bowl to our fields there’s no reason at all why with a few early wickets we can make that 260 feel like it’s a long way away.
“We had a couple of close calls in the overs that we bowled on Saturday, a couple of very tight decisions that didn’t go our way but if a couple of decisions go our way early next week, especially with some rain around all week which might be conducive of some good bowling, we definitely have some hope.
“It would be great to push Deer Park all the way.”
