Taylors Lakes held grip in its inaugural Victorian sub district campaign on Saturday, taking a three-wicket win over Endeavour Hills, just one of four sides to be unbeaten after two games.
While four Endeavour Hills’ batsmen had good starts, only one was able to go on.
Most of the order was dismissed for single figures on the way to 188 at innings’ end.
Yoshan Kumara started strongly with the ball to knock over Vir Lakhani (5) cheaply, and with fellow opener Ben Law run out for just four, the home side was off to a great start.
The visitors’ innings was held together by Brian Kulasena, who came out strongly and played well for his 69.
But Kumara and his fellow bowlers were able to take regular wickets throughout the day. This kept the game in the balance.
Kumara finished with 4-11 off 7.2 tight overs.
The four other bowlers took a single wicket each, while some good fielding yielded two run-outs, which limited the visitors’ attack.
Once in the crease, Lions’ captain Michael Brne (0) was dismissed in the first over.
Fellow opener Adam Dudderidge (10) was also dismissed cheaply, before the home side started to turn the game its way.
Solid middle order contributions from Mark McLachlan (32) and Shaun Guerra (44) brought momentum back to the Lions.
When they were dismissed, Lachlan Marr picked up the slack.
Marr looked good from the start as he posted a match-winning 55. But that was before he was dismissed just 10 runs shy of the victory target.
The Lions got the win easily though – with five overs to spare – as Mark Koutroubas (24) guided his side home.
However, the news was not as good for the Lions’ second XI. Their 6-166 proved too few by the end of the day at Endeavour Hills.
Chris Marr (33) and Nitin Padman (32) were the pick of the batsmen, but with most getting a start, the Lions missed a chance to post a bigger score.
The home side chased down the runs with 11 balls to spare. Padman (3-43) and Liam Wolf (2-28) were best performers with the ball.
