Ridges home in a nail-biter

By Gavin Staindl and
DOVETON and Buckley Ridges played out a nail-biter on Tuesday night, with Daniel Watson and Jason Arnberger trading sixes as the Ridges snuck home by three runs.
The Ridges won the toss and batted, with openers Craig Batchelor and Prahran import player Nick Schlitter getting the innings rolling fast, striking 50 from the first seven overs before Batchelor was dismissed on 16.
Two more quick wickets fell, with Troy Aust (1) and Schlitter (35) departing at 2/57 and 3/58 respectively.
This brought together Daniel Watson (77 not out) and Te Ahu Davis (25), who blasted a quickfire 92-run partnership from seven overs.
With the last ball of the innings, Watson whacked the ball into the Dandenong creek for a massive six to finish off the innings at 5/189.
Doveton in response started badly, losing 3/36 off the first seven overs.
Good slower bowling from Ridges’ Matt Goodwright and Wes Nicholas kept the run rate low through the opening period of the run chase.
This brought together Arnberger (85 not out) and Nick Fairbanks (51), who went about clawing Doveton back into the match.
The pair put on 108 for the fourth wicket, with Fairbanks belting three sixes and four fours.
Fairbanks nicked one off Davis after bringing up his half-century and Doveton was left with 45 to get off three overs.
Arnberger let fly against Watson in the 18th over, hitting three sixes to bring the margin down to 24.
Next was Davis, who Arnberger and Sean Tongue (10 not out) struck for 11, leaving Doveton 14 to get off the last over.
After a long deliberation, Schlitter came on to bowl the last over. Ridges kept it tight for the firs three balls, letting only singles get registered.
Tongue let fly with a flailing six over backward point and Doveton required five from the last two.
Tongue scrambled a single and it was Arnberger versus Schlitter, four to tie, five for a Doveton win.
Arnberger sliced to backward point again and Richie Hope fielded it well to give Buckley Ridges the three-run victory.
The future of the Narre South Cricket Club was on display at Max Pawsey Reserve as some of the club’s best juniors took to the field to take on Fountain Gate in Tuesday night’s Twenty20.
Although Narre South went down by 57 runs, club coach and wicketkeeper Michael Conin said the result didn’t matter, instead the Lions were focussing on blooding youngsters.
Up against a Fountain Gate team brimming with Turf Two talent, Conin selected a side that included seven players under the age of 18 and a further two teenagers playing in their first year outside of juniors.
Conin even included two 13-year-olds who looked just as comfortable playing with the big boys as the veteran Conin did.
Kirk Dickson, 13, took back-to-back wickets which nearly resulted in a hat-trick and finished with the respectable figures of 2/15 off four overs.
Conin’s son, Jake who is also 13, was handing down instructions in the field before making two not out as he confidently danced down the pitch to Fountain Gate’s bowlers.
While Fountain Gate’s total of 6/116 never came under threat, and although the match was a dead-rubber, one got the feeling that Fountain Gate enjoyed the match just as much as Narre South’s juniors revelled in the experience playing against top flight cricketers.
Berwick topped off their successful five-round group stage with a 32-run win over Hallam-Kalora Park at Arch Brown Reserve.
Led by Ash Henry (52) and Jim Davies (42), Berwick reached 5/148 at the end of 20 overs, which proved too much for Hallam who was bowled out for 116.
As the only undefeated side in group D, Berwick is promoted to the Twenty20 semi-finals where it will meet group C winner, Lyndale.
It was a similar story at Coomoora Reserve where Narre Warren lost all 10 wickets as Coomoora breezed past the group stages with an eight-wicket win.
All seven bowlers took a wicket as Coomoora bowled Narre Warren for 97 before Paul Hill led his side past the Magpies’ total with four overs to spare.
HSD completed a respectable Twenty20 campaign by beating Parkfield by four wickets at Reedy Reserve.
On the back of a five wicket haul by Justin Davis, Parkfield could only muster 8/144 as the HSD bats, led by the Davies, Michael (64 not out) and Trevor (38), combined to score the winning runs in the 19th over.
In the group C encounter, Cranbourne finished as only one of three DDCA teams not to record a win after it was beaten by Dandenong West by six wickets.
Despite registering a defendable total of 6/147, Dandenong West proved too good as it hit the winning runs in the fourth last ball.