By Jarrod Potter
CASEY-SOUTH MELBOU-RNE had to be content with a draw in its round one Premier cricket match against Prahran.
Losing 12 overs each due to the soggy conditions at Toorak Park, Prahran chose to bat and made 8/157. Prahran’s top order fell immediately without any resistance, slumping to 4/32 before Neil Schlitter and Liam Murphy went into damage control.
Schlitter and Murphy put on 55 together before Schlitter skied a catch to Rohan Blandford off Ash Perera, putting Prahran to the sword again at 5/87.
Murphy stood tall against the heavy siege from the Swans’ bowlers, remaining not out on 56 at the end of Prahran’s allotted overs to set Casey-South Melbourne 158 to chase. Jayde Herrick, the newest iteration of the flying headband, took 4/28 including the top-order wickets of Daniel Salpietro and Steven Debolfo.
The Swans’ chase started with a whallop, with Blandford smashing out 40 quick runs before being dismissed by James Wild.
Casey staggered to 5/102 before Fergus O’Connor took control, hitting a well made 37 before being dismissed in the dying stages of the match, with victory in sight.
O’Connor fell at 6/151 and the remaining batsmen couldn’t get the job done, matching Prahran on the last ball with scores and wickets falling even on 8/157.
“It’s bittersweet to be honest,” Swans coach Mark Ridgway said. “You never want to lose the game, but in the end we tied it.
“We went for 48 runs off our last seven overs and out of 220 balls faced, 40 per cent were dot balls.
“The micro-management of the game, we should’ve won it by far more and need to learn from our mistakes.”
Herrick’s opening spell was impressive, but he was errant at the death, which contributed to the draw.
“He bowled well at the start, with five overs 2/3, but his last two overs went for 24,” Ridgway said.
“He bowled beautifully early, but tried too many variations at the end; instead of full yorkers we tried bowling length balls and anything else.”
The good start of the bowling was emulated in the batting, with a quick 58-run partnership from the openers.
“It was a good start, 0/58 off eight overs, but then we lost two wickets in quick succession,” Ridgway said.
“Clive Rose and Roshan Livera got bogged down in the first hit of the year.
“Not being harsh on them, but we didn’t rotate the strike enough.
“O’Connor and Foster got us ( to the stage where we needed) 10 off 18 balls which we should’ve got reasonably easy with singles, but both tried to hit sixes and holed out.
“We should’ve got the four points instead of the two.”
Casey-South Melbourne face Frankston-Peninsula on Saturday at Casey Fields then back up on Sunday, facing Northcote at Bill Lawry Oval.
It will be a tough game against Frankston,” Ridgway said.
“They get Jon Holland back from Queensland and they had a pretty big win, so we have a big task in front of us there.
“The cricket we’re playing is relatively blue-collar, scrappy cricket at the moment, but we’ll be competitive against Northcote.”
