Plenty Valley’s quest for back‐to‐back premierships came to a sudden end with defeat in the Victorian Sub‐District Cricket Association north‐west semi‐finals at the weekend.
The Bats were facing Mt Waverley, a side they had beaten by 24 runs in the final round of the regular season to secure top spot on the ladder.
But it was a different story this time after the Bats won the toss and sent Mount Waverley in.
At 3‐166, the Roos looked to be cruising to a huge score before Sanjaya Chathuranga turned the game in the Bats’ favour.
He took the last seven wickets as the Roos were bowled out for 219 and finished with 7‐49 from 19.4 overs.
Day two on Sunday started poorly for the Bats, with English opener Will Wright falling for a duck.
The rest of the top order also struggled and although opener Sean Ayres made 36, the other four in the top five made just 22 between them.
After they had crashed to 5‐76, the Bats’ lower order went down fighting with several useful stands.
These included one of 50 between Andrew McCormack, in his first senior game of the season, and Sunan Rubaiyat at number 10.
McCormack’s wicket when the Bats were still 33 away from victory put a massive dent in the Bats’ hopes as the run rate rose to more than a run a ball.
The innings came to an end at 200 with the wicket of Rubaiyat for the top score of 37.
It was bad day all round for the Bats, with their Second XI and Third XI also losing.
But the Fourths though won their semi‐final and will play Werribee in the grand final.
