DDCC Round 4 Review

Southern Districts defeated Nightcliff

Southern Districts fought back pressure to score its first win of the two-day season and keep its title defence alive.

After suffering two losses to begin the long-form season, the Crocs were too good for the one-day champions, Nightcliff, bowling them out for 163 to claim an impressive 105-run win at Gerry Wood Oval on Saturday.

Crocs quick Delano Potgieter was sensational in his second outing for the club this season, claiming 5-42 including the big wickets of Connor Carroll (24) and Tyler Van Luin (0) early.

Potgieter had Carroll edging to keeper Daniel Mylius for the first wicket to break the dangerous opening partnership of the Queenslander and Douwtjie Hoogenboezem at 1-33.

Then Van Luin was trapped LBW the very next ball before Christopher McEvoy added more pain for the Tigers, dismissing Hoogenboezem for 12 soon after to have the visitors at 3-39.

Crocs all-rounder Lachlan Bangs was also superb in the victory, claiming 4-40 including the important wicket of Paul Wasiewicz (46) who scored a century in the last round.

Bangs said it was an important win to keep his side’s finals hopes alive.

“If we didn’t win that, we would really be needing to win every game with an outright to make finals, so it was a massive win, it keeps us alive,” he said.

“[We are] still struggling to do it with the bat, like our middle-lower order has had to wag a lot and it did again. They put on a lot of runs for the last three or four wickets so that got us to a pretty defendable total.

“Two good cricket wickets to be honest, tough early with the new ball with the bat, but if any batsman wanted to just protect their stumps and leave the ball alone, there wasn’t too many demons and it flattened out on both days later on.

“But it was very good to get the win and get on a bit of a roll after tea because they were looking pretty solid at tea, so we bowled well after tea to get them all out for 160.”

Bangs was also complimentary of Potgieter’s performance, stating he was already the best cricketer in the competition after his second game.

“He is a very good cricketer Delano,” he said.

“I have just sort of realised, we had a look last night at what he has done in South Africa; like he is a proper first-class cricketer in South Africa, genuine all-rounder.

“I would not be surprised if he peels off a lot of runs in the last few home and away games. And he is just a beast with the ball, doesn’t miss much, doesn’t give you anything, very good competitor and very skilful.

“He is probably the best cricketer in the comp already after a couple of games so it’s a handy pick up.”

In the first innings, Crocs skipper Tim Garner led the way, top-scoring with 51 coming in at No.5 before bottom four batters, Christopher McEvoy (29), Dwaine Richards (28), Patrick Nagel (23) and Daniel Mylius (25*) fired late to bolster the score beyond 250.

Andrew Richards was the shining light with the ball for the Tigers, claiming 4-57.

PINT defeated Tracy Village

Twists PINT has claimed fourth spot on the ladder after a convincing victory over Tracy Village at DXC Arena 2 on Saturday.

After bowling out Tracy for 137, Greens skipper Farzan Chowna struck an unbeaten 129 and wicketkeeper Connor Poulton hit 95 to power the commanding victory.

The Greens declared at 3-271 to send the Villagers back in who replied strongly with Tom Campbell notching an unbeaten 100.

Early in the game, it was Oliver Bembrick starring with the ball to help dismiss Tracy for a low total. Bembrick took 4-54 off 16 overs including six maidens.

Nicholas Bembrick was also superb with 3-19 while Coby Edmondstone (2-39) and Noah MacDonald (1-24) took the other wickets.

Arjun Sehrawat was the best with the bat for Tracy in the first innings, top-scoring with 48 with skipper Jack Doyle also contributing with 35.

Steven Roser struck 26 opening the batting but ultimately, it was another disappointing effort overall with the bat for the Villagers.

Meanwhile, the Greens got its two-day season back on track after back-to-back losses to Waratah and Nightcliff.

It is also a promising result after the Greens had lost to Village earlier in the season. The two sides now share a 2-2 head-to-head record over the past two seasons.

Palmerston defeated DarwinPalmerston has continued its stunning DDCC two-day campaign with a dominant win over Darwin to go 16 points clear on top of the ladder.

Power skipper Hamish Martin was sensational again, claiming five wickets in a monster day out for the spinner who finished with figures of 5-127 off 35 overs to lead the win.

Rommel Shahzad, at the other end, had figures of 3-108 off 27.2 overs to partner Martin in an incredible afternoon of spin bowling where the Eagles were bowled out for 289.

Eagles No.8 Ronak Bedi top scored for his side with 78, while Justin Galeotti (57) and Atharv Deshpande (56) also hit half centuries, but it wasn’t enough to chase down Power’s 463.

After Aidan Firman and Alex Bleakley struck huge centuries in the first innings to produce the biggest DDCC total since round 11, 2022, when the Eagles posted 8-486 against the Power, it was always going to be a tough task for the visitors.

Firman top scored with 135 coming in at No.3, hitting 23 boundaries, including five sixes in his brilliant knock off 128 balls.

Bleakley struck 127 off 180 balls in a fabulous century for the Power legend who hit 15 boundaries including two maximums.

The pair combined for a massive third-wicket partnership of 205, sending the score from 2-29 to 3-234 in a match-winning period of the game. Justin Galeotti did his best to stop the bleeding for the Eagles, taking 4-93 including the wicket of Firman to break the huge partnership.

Following the loss, the Eagles have a 1-2 record and sit in fifth position on the ladder six points behind second to fourth-ranked sides.

Waratah had the bye.