Wickets were hard to come by for Melton at the weekend, as the Lions came up short against Moorabbin in round one of the Victorian Sub District Cricket season.
Batting first on day one of the contest, Melton posted a hard-fought 8-177 on the back of a brilliant 96 from top-order batsman and captain David Kirk.
Life in the middle was tough for the lower orders, though. The next-highest score was 17 from tail-ender Dylan Clarke. Players returned to Moorabbin for day two on Saturday, and it was the Lions who drew first blood. Opening batsman Calum Basey was dismissed for just four, with the score at 1-6.
But the rest of the Moorabbin top order wasn’t about to throw away their wickets and dug in against some quality Melton bowling.
A gutsy 61 from Marc Ferne and handy contributions from David Majtlis and Chamod Pathirana enbabled Moorabbin to reach the total in the 72nd over for the loss of five wickets.
Brad Jones and Andrew Zenonos were the pick of the Melton bowlers, taking two wickets each. Melton will look to get its first win of the new season this week when it takes on competition-struggler Sunshine.
In other round one results, Werribee’s powerful batting line-up carried it to a dominant win over Yarraville.
The Tigers were always in the box seat after smashing 3-306 on day one.
Brothers Matthew and Shaun Dean were the stars, making 132 and 91 respectively.
Sitting comfortably with a healthy cache of runs on the board, the Tigers bowlers were in all-out attack mode for day two of the match on Saturday.
It was the perfect start for first-year captain-coach Mitchell Johnstone, who took 5-32 from 19 overs.
Aangan Parbhakar was the other multiple wicket-taker, claiming 2-32.
In other round one results, Ormond smashed Sunshine, Williamstown went down to Oakleigh, and Moorabbin defeated Melton.
