A CHANCELESS innings of 76 not out from opener Aaron Mott rescued Dunsborough from the jaws of defeat in the match of the round in A-grade cricket at the Dunsborough Playing Fields on Saturday.
Visitors Cowaramup looked on track for victory after posting 184 all out and then reducing the home side to 4-30, with fast bowler Buddhika Sanjeewa taking the prize wickets of Chris Reagan, Matt Jamieson and Nick Ritchie to decimate the Dunsborough top order. Mott held his nerve and received assistance from Phil Watts (15), Danny Hatton (25) and an unlikely ally in Pete Morris (19) to see Dunsborough scrape home by two wickets in the 46th over as the light faded. The game was so late finishing, at 7pm, that the last four overs probably would not have been bowled. Cowaramup had teenager Fraser Oates to thank for their total after being put into bat. In a repeat of his performance against Dunsborough three weeks ago, Oates came to the crease in the opening over and batted almost throughout the whole innings for 76. Dunsborough welcomed allrounder Nathan Whitney back to A-grade with a tidy performance of 5-17 with the ball late in the innings. The result cements Dunsborough’s place as the front runner in the A-grade competition.
At Gloucester Park, YOBS continued their domination over Margaret River Hawks with a comfortable victory. All-rounder Haig Colombera (68 off 82 balls) set YOBS up for a competitive total after the visitors were put into bat. Spinners Rumesh Silva (3-31) and Peter Crimp (2-48) did most of the damage for the ball for Hawks in a good effort in the field by the home side. Colombera looked set for a big score but was run out in the first over after drinks, and it fell to import Ardene Ruhode (28) and Harvey Golding (31) to carry on with things for YOBS. Ruhode’s uniquely styled vertical sweep shot accounted for many of his runs, before he came undone trying the reverse sweep and was well caught at gully by Silva. Tait Spowart (22) struck four successive boundaries in the 50th over to boost the score to 200 for YOBS. Hawks’ chase started disastrously when valuable opener Shane Joyce straight drove the first ball of the innings, committed himself to a single, but found his partner unresponsive and had to double-back, running almost two runs in the process. Fielder Tait Spowart intercepted the ball and a powder-puff throw proved right on target, hitting the stumps at the batsman’s end with Joyce nowhere near safe. The Hawks’ innings then imploded with a succession of swatted long-hops to mid-on and mid-off, and only Silva (22 not out) batted with the commitment required as his teammates succumbed to 86 all out in just 21 overs. Skipper Ben Payne cleaned up the tail for YOBS to finish with 4-9 off 4.2 overs.
In B-grade cricket, an unusual situation arose at the Dunsborough Playing Fields when the last 15 overs of the game between Dunsborough and Cowaramup had to be bowled from the same end after the synthetic wicket became unsafe for the bowlers. Dunsborough easily accounted for Cowaramup, winning the game by nine wickets.
In the other B-grade games St Marys got home by three wickets over Vasse thanks to an unbeaten 49 from Joe Lowe, while YOBS had the better of Hawks in a good contest at Margaret River.
B-grade results: Dunsborough 1-118 (B. Siney 56no, T. Begley 31) b Cowaramup 9-115 (45 overs) (G. Messer 28, S. Gill 22no, O. Herbst 21, M. Vogelsanger 3-34, J. Pes 2-18) at Dunsborough Synthetic. St Marys 7-106 (33 overs) (J. Lowe 49no, G. Snow 3-21, B. Kearney 3-27) b Vasse 104 (35.1 overs) (G. Snow 32, J. Hills 4-13, M. Snaddon 4-18) at Bovell Park Turf. YOBS 6-127 (24 overs) (C. Luff 51, T. Payne 35, J. Kemp 21no, D. Bailey 3-20) b Marg River Hawks 125 (44 overs) (C. Baker 34no, J. Trewren 3-30, M. Walsh 2-23) at Margaret River Synthetic.