THE Donnybrook Cricket Club has kept its chances of playing finals alive with a two-wicket victory over Hay Park at Egan Park on Saturday afternoon.
It was the visitors who won the toss and elected to bat first on a flat pitch and after a wayward start it was Brad Swarbrick that claimed the first wicket, having the Hay park batsmen trapped in the crease for LBW. A 69-run second wicket partnership settled Hay Park before Norm Bedford (2-29) got the breakthrough hitting the top of off stump. From there the Dons’ fielding cost them badly with a number of opportunities slipping through the hands of fielders as the runs began to flow for the Redbacks as they went to drinks at 2 for 125.
The second half of the Dons innings was better with wickets to Chris Morgan (3-46) and Barry Kettlewell (2-61) which helped to slow the run rate down slightly and Swarbrick (3-41) closed out the innings as the visitors were bowled out for an impressive 242.
After the break openers Phil Welsh and James Harcourt played with risk but blasted their way to an 87-run partnership before Welsh was dismissed for 35. That wicket didn’t slow Harcourt down as he continued to find the boundary before skying one to mid-off for 73.
That left Norm Bedford and youngster Dion Parker at the crease who seemed to be cruising before a mix up at the crease seen Bedford run out for 20. Parker continued to hold his end up but wickets fell around him with Wayne Clifford and Kettlewell failing to trouble the scorers which brought Zane Platti to the crease who looked comfortable before being run out for 15.
Swarbrick (5 not out) was next to the middle as he watched Parker (43) loose his leg stump after chopping on. Tail-ender Neil Robertson (16no) took the game away from the visitors with a few big shots to finish the game in the 47th over and giving the Dons a glimmer of hope of playing finals.
The B-grade will travel to Bunbury this week to play Leschenault who are second on the ladder.
The D-division made it a double win for the club as they easily accounted for Collie in Collie. The visitors were asked to bowl first and Dave Hutchison (3-33) and Daniel Morgan (3-34) did most of the damage to help restrict the home team to 173 runs.
In the run chase captain Russell Wright was impressive opening the batting with an unbeaten half century but wickets fell around him before Mark Manea came to the crease and blasted his way to 85 runs to give the Dons a six-wicket victory to also give them a chance of playing finals cricket. They will host Leschenault this Saturday in a must-win match.
