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Cricket: Mixed results for Mt Lawley’s first games of season

Dustin EdwardsEastern Reporter

Mount Lawley v South Perth

South Perth has kicked off its season in style, with an epic one run win over Mount Lawley that came down to the final ball of the day at Breckler Park on Saturday.

After being sent in to bat, South Perth did not get off to the start it had envisaged, losing 3-20 as Mohamed Ijaz wreaked some early havoc with the ball.

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However, a 39-run partnership from Brooke Guest and Hugh Brown steadied the ship for the visitors.

At 4-59, Jayden Shadendorf and Brown fell in quick succession, leaving South Perth’s tail exposed.

Although the match appeared to swing in the Hawks’ favour, Chris Chellew entered the crease in sparkling touch, finding the boundary with ease as he powered the total past 100.

Chellew then found a partner in Alex Bevilaqua, with the pair belting out a 75-run partnership and giving their bowlers a total to defend.

South Perth ended its innings at 8-198 after batting out the 50 overs.

Mount Lawley then hit the crease with new skipper and former Perth Scorcher batsman, Michael Klinger.

It looked as though the run chase was going to be shut down early by South Perth, with wickets falling around Klinger.

However, at 4-69, Andrew Bottega dug his heels in to build a much-needed partnership with Klinger.

The dynamic duo put on a superb 88-run fifth-wicket stand to bring the Hawks within arms-length of victory.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, the loss of Bottega at 4-157 sparked a middle order collapse, with Mount Lawley losing four wickets in the space of 16 runs.

Although the Hawks were struggling at 8-173, Klinger was still at the crease, making a nuisance of himself for the South Perth bowlers.

After notching a brilliant century, Klinger was finally dismissed at 9-194 by Darius D’Silva after scoring a marvellous 103 runs from 130 deliveries.

With only five runs left for victory and one wicket left in the shed, the Hawks scrambled their way to 197 with one ball remaining and two runs left to win, but D’Silva was once again the man, taking the final wicket and winning the game for South Perth and claiming his third wicket of the day in an impressive victory.

Bayswater Morley v Mount Lawley

Mount Lawley has won its first match of the season over Bayswater Morley by 129 runs following a dominant bowling display in Sunday at Hillcrest Lower.

After winning the toss and electing to bat, the Hawks lost superstar batsman Michael Klinger for nought at 1-28, before James Newnham and Ethan Petta found their rhythm.

The pair added 65 important runs and firmly put the pressure back on the Bears’ bowling attack.

However, the Bears struck back sharply through Mitchell Todd, who took two wickets in two balls and brought the Hawks crashing back to Earth at 3-93.

Tristan Hobley departed shortly after at 4-118, as Newnham continued to grind out a successful innings.

Newnham and Andrew Bottega pushed the total to 141 before Newnham’s day was ended after a hard-fought half century.

The Hawks enjoyed good service from their middle and lower order batsmen, with Jordan Chislett (35) and Bottega (32) the standouts, as the Hawks batted the full 50 overs for a lofty total of 7-213.

With the target set, Bayswater Morley’s response could not have been any worse.

After losing Aaron Todd on the second ball of the innings, the run chase went from bad to worse in the blink of an eye.

Jordan Chislett and Ian Fishman bamboozled the batsmen with the ball, taking seven wickets between them, as the Bears found themselves in deep strife.

Ross Loiacono was the only resistance for the Bears, scoring an unbeaten 32, as the Bears were bowled out for a miserly 84.