The premiership dreams of the Greenvale Kangaroos became a nightmare at the weekend.
With the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division grand final reduced from four days to two because of rain the previous week, the Kangaroos sent South Caulfield in at Donald McLean Reserve on Saturday.
It looked to be a good decision as the Kangaroos’ fast bowlers and good fielding accounted for South Caulfield’s top order, with the side slumping to 6-62.
South Caulfield’s lower order responded to the challenge, with four of the bottom five batsmen making 20 runs or more.
Thanks to those contributions, South Caulfield, which had only lost one match for the season, posted a more than competitive 175 for the Kangaroos to chase.
Tallan Wright took three wickets for the Kangaroos while Jacob Thompson and Chathura Darshana took two each.
The Kangaroos openers survived an over at the end of Saturday but there were far fewer positives on Sunday for the batsmen.
Playing coach Tarek Moughanie was gone before the score had even reached double figures and Chinthaka Jayasinghe followed him back to the sheds soon after.
Things got worse for the Kangaroos when Matthew Innes became the third member of the top order to fall in single figures.
Tallan Wright made 15 but when skipper Jon Kent (22) and Andrew LePage fell in quick succession, the Kangaroos had slumped to 6-56.
The Kangaroos’ lower order was unable to fire up.
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As with so many times in his career, Peter Manser tried to contribute with the bat but his 16 was never going to be enough to save the Kangaroos. Manser, Matt Bonello and Matthew Kent fell in the space of three runs and with the kangaroos at 9-82 it looked like the game would soon end.
The Kangaroos’ No.10 and No.11, Thompson and Darshana, put off the loss for a bit longer by producing their team’s biggest partnership of the day.
Thompson, whose contribution for the season in the senior division to that point had been just 13, looked confident with the bat, finding the boundary on four occasions.
The partnership, innings and match come to end when Darshana was bowled out for 10 with the Kangaroos all out for 125 – 51 runs short of victory.
Thompson remained the not out batsman on 31.
Other division winners included Keilor, Chelsea, St Albans and Pascoe Vale Sports Club.
