STRATHDALE- Maristians haven’t given up hope of climbing from fourth to second position on the Bendigo District Cricket Association ladder and snatching a last-gasp home semi-final.
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The Suns started Saturday’s final round nine points behind the second-placed Eaglehawk.
However, the Suns have set up an opportunity to push for outright points after dominating White Hills at Glen Loddon Homes Oval.
If Strathdale was to win outright, and Eaglehawk not defend its 9-231 against Strathfieldsaye, the Suns would grab second spot from the Hawks.
The Suns already have first innings points secured against White Hills after leg-spinner Cameron Taylor became the first BDCA player since Sandhurst’s Frank Watts in 1961-62 to take at least five wickets in four-consecutive games.
In what was another ordinary batting performance, the Demons were all out for just 104.
Taylor ripped through the Demons with a haul of 6-26 off 17.4 overs and now has 38 wickets for the season, including 26 in his past four games.
The Demons were all out in the 49th over, with four players making ducks and only Sam Stagg putting a price on his wicket.
Opener Stagg batted for 157 minutes until he was the ninth wicket to fall for 58.
Stagg faced 148 balls – the rest of his 10 team-mates faced 147 between them.
The Suns are already eight runs in front after ending day one at 4-112, with Sam Johnston (81 n.o.) needing 19 more on day two to notch his first BDCA century.
• Kangaroo Flat leg-spinner Chris Barber snared five wickets against Bendigo United in the first versus third match of the round at Harry Trott Oval.
The Redbacks – who have now won 11 of 12 tosses this season – compiled 9-221.
Barber finished with 5-67 off 30 overs, including 12 maidens, to lift his season tally to 22 wickets.
Four of Barber’s wickets came through a period when the Redbacks lost 4-30, going from 2-103 in the 40th over to 6-133 in the 60th.
The top-scorer for the Redbacks was opener Mark Di Fede, who after walking out to begin his innings at 1pm wasn’t dismissed until 5pm for 46 off 199 balls.
Left-hander Di Fede is still to get to 50 this season, with Saturday his fourth dismissal in the 40s.
His innings ended when the ball richoted off Kangaroo Flat fieldsman Tyler Hinds in close and was caught by Dylan Gibson at mid-wicket, but Di Fede wasn’t given out until the two umpires conferred.
The Redbacks were 7-143 in the 65th over when Di Fede was dismissed, before Harry Dongean (35), Jake Thrum (23) and Miggy Podosky (11 n.o.) combined to push the score above 220 through the final 20 overs.
Earlier, the competition’s leading run-scorer, Ben Gunn, made 41 and now has 557 for the season.
Meanwhile, the game was delayed for 10 minutes following tea after the sprinklers came on during the break.
• Eaglehawk recovered from a threatening 6-91 against Strathfieldsaye to bat out its 85 overs and reach 9-231 at Canterbury Park in the clash that will decide this season’s Symes Motors Cup, which is held by the Hawks.
Batting at No.7, Matt Fitt led the revival with an unbeaten 73 off 149 to now be averaging 172 across his past four innings.
Fitt shared in a steadying partnership of 57 for the seventh wicket with Zac East (32), and later put on an unbroken 43 for the last wicket with No.11 Richard Tibbett (20 n.o.).
Off-spinner Beauden Rinaldi (3-81 off 22), who now has 26, and Michael Curtis (3-44 off 21) each took three wickets for the Jets.
Curtis was involved in the first three wickets of the day.
As well as dismissing openers Andrew Smith (18) and Matt Ford (0), he also ran out the unlucky Shane Murdoch (17) with a deflection off his hand when Murdoch was backing up at the bowler’s end.
• Sandhurst fought its way to 7-214 against Bendigo at Axis Employment Oval.
The Dragons had been cruising along at 2-107 in the 45th over, but after three quick wickets fell – two of them Taylor Beard and captain Craig Howard (22) – were 5-114 in the 52nd.
But the Dragons were able to stifle the Goers’ momentum with a 59-run stand for the sixth wicket between the experienced middle-order pair of Shane Robinson (37) and Brenton Jones (34).
Sam Sperling also chipped in with 15 not out to help the Dragons past 200.
Beard top-scored with 56 off 104 (nine fours) in what was his first half-century of the season.
Craig Pearce proved an X-factor with the ball for the Goers, finishing with 3-25 off 22 overs, including 10 maidens.
Pearce at one stage took 3-2, with those three wickets coming when the Dragons fell from 2-107 to 5-114.
Nathan Fitzpatrick also gave little away with the ball with a tight 1-36 off 27 overs, including 10 maidens.
• Golden Square’s Scott Johnson has become just the sixth player in BDCA history to reach 9000 career runs.
With his innings of 96 against Huntly-North Epsom, Johnson moved to 9072 first XI runs, while he also surpassed 10,000 career runs, which includes second and third XI games.
Golden Square amassed 253 against the Power – a vast improvement on round nine when it was bowled out for 42 by Huntly-North.
As well as Johnson’s 96, skipper Tim Wood made 80.
Peter Moore (3-40) and Brett Elvey (3-42) took three wickets each for the Power.
• More than 9000 BDCA first XI runs – Heath Behrens (11,525), Leon Grose (10,407), Wayne Walsh (10,068), Shane Cowling (9457), Scott Johnson (9072), Max Taylor (9057).
- Stats according to BDCA historian Darren Rodda
