Suns back on top of BDCA after winning premiership by 164 runs

The Suns defeated Kangaroo Flat by 164 runs at the Queen Elizabeth Oval in a game that will be best remembered for the stellar second-wicket partnership between Daniel Clohesy and Grant Waldron.

Sent into bat, the Suns delivered a sizzling batting performance, compiling 7-363 off their 85 overs.

The Suns' score is the equal fourth highest in BDCA grand final history in what is a list that is headed by Harcourt's 468 against South Bendigo in 1928-29.

The backbone of the Suns' massive score was the duo of Clohesy and Waldron.

The Suns were 1-0 just two balls into the game after the dismissal of skipper Cameron Taylor (0) before Clohesy and Waldron teamed for their 203-run second-wicket partnership.

After taking their first wicket on the second ball of the day through Dylan Klemm (3-86), it would be more than four hours later before the Roos took their second in the 61^st.

Taylor-Walsh Medal winner Clohesy scored the 28^th century in BDCA grand final history with his knock of 118, while Waldron's scintillating post-Christmas form continued with 92.

Jack Neylon (51) also raised his bat for the Suns, who scored at a run-rate of 4.27 for the day against the competition's best bowling attack.

On Sunday the Roos were bowled out for 199 in reply and never looked like seriously challenging their target after crashing to 6-71 inside 24 overs.

Roos' stalwart Adam Burns batted with plenty of determination in top-scoring with 58.

Strathdale-Maristians' James Vlaeminck provided one of the highlights of the grand final with his brilliant catch to dismiss Matt Dwyer (6) - one of those rare dismissals where he caught it on the boundary, threw it back into the air as he was falling over the line and then re-caught it.

Strathdale-Maristians' win on the weekend avenged the Suns' grand final loss to Kangaroo Flat last season and the club has now won 11 first XI premierships, including nine of the past 14 flags.

Ben DeAraugo has played in all nine of those premiership wins.

STRATHDALE-Maristians has regained its status as the Bendigo District Cricket Association's premier team.

After losing last year's grand final to Kangaroo Flat the Suns turned the tables 12 months on, thrashing the Roos by 164 runs at the QEO in a win brilliantly set up with the bat on day one.

On Saturday Daniel Clohesy and Grant Waldron shared in one of the great BDCA partnerships of all-time as Strathdale-Maristians posted a massive day one score.

The Suns made the most of the invitation to bat first in perfect grand final day conditions, pummeling 7-363 off their 85 overs.

On a day that would have had the history buffs pondering just where the Suns' run-feast ranked in terms of highest BDCA first XI grand final scores, the answer is equal fourth.

Only Harcourt's 468 v South Bendigo in 1928-29, Golden Square's 369 v Bendigo in 1940-41 and Golden Square's 368 v Ordnance Imperials in 1943-44 are higher, while Sandhurst also made 363 against Bendigo in 1963-64.

Before Saturday the last team to have made more than 300 in a first XI grand final was Golden Square (7-306) against Strathdale-Maristians in 2008-09.

Clohesy and Waldron wrote their names into the annals of BDCA folklore with their superb second wicket partnership of 203.

As it has done so often over the past two seasons Kangaroo Flat stuck to its preferred option of winning the toss and bowling first and it paid an immediate dividend when on the second ball of the day Dylan Klemm had Suns' captain Cameron Taylor (0) trapped lbw.

At that stage the Suns were 1-0 and the time was 12.01pm when No.3 Waldron headed to the wicket to join Clohesy.

The Roos wouldn't take their next wicket until the Suns were 203, the time was 4.06pm and they were into the 61st over as Clohesy and Waldron took a stranglehold on the grand final.

Clohesy had a slice of luck early in his innings when put down by the usually safe hands of Chris Barber at gully when he was on four off Dylan Klemm, which would have had the Suns 2-11.

Playing against the No.1 bowling attack in the competition, Clohesy and Waldron saw off the new ball and then set about laying the foundation for the Suns' monster score.

At the first drinks break they had progressed the Suns to 1-43 off 20 overs before Clohesy upped the ante.

Clohesy took 81 balls to bring up his 50, while the pair brought up their 100-run partnership in the 37th over.

By tea the Suns had advanced to 1-106 off 41 overs with Clohesy on 63 and Waldron on 40 at the break.

Five overs after the resumption of play Waldron brought up his 50 as his sparkling form continued, with the grand final the Suns' coach's seventh half-century in his past eight innings.

There continued to be no let-up from Clohesy and Waldron on the Roos, who had to dig deep into their bowling arsenal by utilising seven bowlers as opposed to just the four that were needed in the previous week's semi-final demolition of Sandhurst.

The Suns' duo brought their 150-run partnership up in the 52nd over and then came a moment to cherish two overs later for Taylor-Walsh Medal winner Clohesy when he etched his name into the BDCA history books with a grand final century.

With a cut shot off leg-spinner Chris Barber (0-57) that raced to the boundary Clohesy brought up his ton, with his 100 coming off 154 balls.

Clohesy added a further 18 runs before his brilliant innings came to an end for 118 when caught at deep backward square leg by Matt Dwyer off Dylan Klemm, bringing to an end the 203-run partnership between he and Waldron.

In what was the highest individual score in a BDCA first XI grand final since Heath Behrens' 139 n.o. for Bendigo United against Golden Square in 2006-07, Clohesy's 118 came off 171 balls and was laced with 15 boundaries.

As well as his 15 boundaries, Clohesy - who now has 265 runs in the four grand finals he has played for the Suns - also worked the ball around nicely with 32 singles.

Waldron fell eight runs short of joining Clohesy in the BDCA grand final century club when his innings ended in the 67th over when lbw to Luke Stagg for 92.

Like Clohesy, Waldron showed tremendous temperament in facing 206 balls and hitting nine boundaries and he closes his season out having averaged 76.1 across his last eight innings.

While it was the 203-run partnership between Clohesy and Waldron that was the cornerstrone of the Suns' innings, the runs flowed throughout the full 85 overs through additional contributions from Jack Neylon (51 off 51), James Barri (44 off 42), James Vlaeminck (34 off 20) and Matt Wilkinson (13 n.o. off 10).

The innings also featured Neylon and Barri adding 49 for the fourth wicket and Neylon and Vlaeminck putting on 63 for fifth wicket.

The Suns' score of 7-363 featured 37 fours hit and two sixes - one from Neylon and one from Wilkinson in the final over of the day bowled by Stagg - as they scored at a run-rate of 4.27 and allowed the Roos to bowl just 11 maidens.

"It was a brilliant partnership by Chlos and Waldo," Suns' skipper Taylor said after Saturday's opening day.

"The part I was most impressed with was the way they both controlled their innings. They stuck to their strengths, waited for balls that were in their zone and tried to cash in when they got them.

"To do it for the length of time they did was just a very impressive partnership.That partnership then allowed the rest of the guys to have some freedom when they batted."

Dylan Klemm (3-86 off 19) was the leading wicket-taker for the Roos, while Stagg picked up 2-72 off 16 and Brent Hamblin finished with 1-63 off 18.

The Suns' score of 7-363 was the highest the Roos have conceded in a game since the Suns made 366 against them in round 12 of 2012-13.

"Strathdale batted very well today on what is a tough ground to defend on," Roos' captain Jake Klemm said at the end of day one.

"The wicket was a bit tacky early on and we were getting the ball to do a fair bit off the wicket in the first 10 or 15 overs.

"We had a couple of chances that didn't go our way early and then the wicket flattened out, but we wanted to make the most of it with the new ball early when it had a bit in it. I'm proud of the way the boys stuck at it all day and now we'll look forward to tomorrow."

Faced with a mighty uphill battle already to start Sunday it was clear from early that the Suns' 363 was going to be a mountain too big to climb for Kangaroo Flat after losing a cluster of early wickets.

Less than 24 overs into the day the Roos had crashed to 6-71 before - as it has so often done this year - the lower-order dug in.

Led by the trio of Adam Burns (58), Riley Burns (23) and Brent Hamblin (36) the Roos were able to delay the Suns' premiership celebrations by a couple of hours with the last four wickets combining to add 128, pushing Kangaroo Flat's final score to 199.

Suns' opening bowler Jack Pysing (3-28 off 10) was brilliant with the ball early, taking the first three wickets of the day - Daniel Barber (13), Jake Klemm (0), who was bowled without offering a shot, and Chris Barber (31), who had looked in good touch.

Playing in his first grand final, Tom Purcell (3-41 off 11) marked the occasion with three wickets, the first of which came in his first over thanks to a brilliant piece of fielding from James Vlaeminck on the square leg boundary to catch Matt Dwyer (6).

Dywer's pull shot looked to be sailing for six, but landed short. Vlaeminck caught it on the boundary in front of the grandstand, threw it back into the air as he was falling over the line and then re-caught it.

The other four Suns' wickets were taken by skipper and leg-spinner Taylor (4-60 off 21.4), including the match-winning dismissal when he caught and bowled Luke Stagg (0) in the 58th over.

Cameron Taylor (Strathdale-Maristians) - "It's certainly a lot better feeling than being on the other end of it like we were last year, which we've had our share of over the years.

"Coming into this weekend we had good clarity with what we wanted to do, but also an acknowledgement that we're playing against a very good side and the outcome would take care of itself... we just had to do what we do and hope it would be good enough.

"With the ball today, I can't speak more highly of Jack Pysing and Tom Purcell with the way they stood up for us and they have taken their game to another level this year.

"Pyso was unreal in the grand final last year and just keeps improving and he got us started today with those early wickets.

"And then there was that bit of a lull when Burns and Hamblin were batting for a period of time and Tom came on and straight away got that key wicket of Hamblin for us."

On Vlaemnick's outfield catch to dismiss Dwyer: "To be fair, Jimmy is one of the people that is practicing that at training all the time. Him, Chlos and Jack (Neylon) are always practicing things like that and that's why you do it for days like today.

"It was a huge moment for us to keep the momentum going."

Jake Klemm (Kangaroo Flat) - "Unfortunately, if you don't get early wickets with the ball and then lose early wickets yourself it's going to be tough to compete and that's what happened.

"We lost early poles today chasing 360, which obviously put us under pressure... mind you, our best batsmen this year have been from No.4 to 8, so we never gave up the chase and we saw that with Burnsy and Hammer's partnership (76 for the seventh wicket).

"We've lost one of our past nine games and unfortunately that was today, but that's what happens when you come up against the best.

"We look forward to more contests in the future with Strathdale, which is obviously in a nice spot themselves with some good young players coming through."

"From a personal point of view with the season I've had, the idea of making a hundred in the grand final was pretty far fetched.

"Being able to spend time out in the middle with Waldo and the way he talks through his innings was what probably got me through, so a lot of credit has to go to him and he did a great job to get his 90-odd.

"We've got a nice rivalry going with Kangaroo Flat having played in three of the past four grand finals against each other and there's a bit of a sweeter taste with this being my first win in a two-day grand final."