Subbies cricket: Oakleigh’s Michael Splatt grabs six wickets against Ormond
New-ball pair Michael Splatt and Alexander Jones bowl Oakleigh to an emphatic victory over Ormond at Warrawee Park in the VSCA quarterfinal.
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The question at stumps on Saturday concerned Oakleigh’s total of 164.
Would it be enough against Ormond at Warrawee Park?
Thanks to its great opening bowlers Michael Splatt and Alexander Jones, it proved to be plenty on Sunday as the Oaks surged to victory in the qualifying final and advanced to the final four of the VSDCA north-south section.
Splatt is having a golden summer and with a 15-over first spell he separated the Ormond top-order in the manner of an axe splitting wood.
The right-armer captured 6-20 off 17 overs, with nine maidens, taking him up to a competition-best 37 wickets in 2019-20.
Splatt and Jones (2-26 off 17 consecutive overs) bowled unchanged for 30 overs, unflagging in their effort, unwavering in their accuracy, unsparing in their pressure.
Splatt started the rot for the Monders, grabbing two wickets in three balls. First he had Ben Speake (3) caught and bowled, then he knocked over Jagveer Panesar for a blob.
Ormond was never again in it, its batsmen coming and going like the cars on Warrigal Rd as the visitors were rounded up for 84.
Geoffrey Latham (1-20) and Andrew Splatt (1-8) collected the opening bowlers’ crumbs.
It was a sorry scorecard for Ormond, but it could have been even worse. When Blade Baxter was dismissed for 16 the Monders were 8-46, but some merry hitting from Brendan Barry, who top scored with 23, and Tom Stait pushed them closer to 100 than 50.
The end came after 43.2 overs, 34 of them delivered by Oakleigh’s ever-threatening new-ball combination.
“It was straw-coloured grass and there was plenty of it sticking up for us,’’ Splatt said of the wicket.
“It wasn’t an easy track to bat on, so we did really well yesterday to get to 164. I thought it was a winning score.
“It was about putting the ball in the right areas, getting a few early ones (wickets) and squeezing from there.’’
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Splatt, 34, attributed some of his success to “the bloke at the other end (Jones) bowling bloody well’’.
Oakleigh owed much to former Victorian opener Graeme Vimpani for its day-one tally, the right-hander crafting 67 off 152 deliveries.
Vimpani, 48, said it was “my turn to stand up and probably overdue too’’.
“Pleasing to make some runs I suppose, but at this time of the year, finals, you don’t worry too much about individual scores, you worry about the bottom line,’’ he said.
“I was confident we had enough runs because the deck was hard to bat on and the outfield was slow. We felt we’d be in the game for a long time, but you’re never sure until you take all 10 wickets.’’
In this weekend’s preliminary finals Oakleigh hosts St Bernard’s, which finished third on the ladder but suffered an embarrassing loss to Kew.
Caulfield welcomes Kew in the other prelim.
WHAT THE CAPTAINS SAID
Brendan McGuinness (Oakleigh)
“They’re in good form (Splatt and Jones) and they want the ball in their hand. I’m not going to argue with them when they’ve got their tails up. They’ve been terrific, not just this season but the past few years. They’ve done an excellent job. They always get us off to a good start. They complement each other really well, bringing different aspects to their bowling. It makes them a formidable attack. Graeme, he batted fantastically well. They bowled a little short to him on a wicket that was giving them assistance, and he was able to play square of the wicket, which is one of his many strengths.’’
James Wild (Ormond)
“We came up against quality opposition in Oakleigh. They know their ground inside out, they’ve got two quality opening bowlers who bowl in the right areas and they had a wicket that assisted them. We couldn’t handle the pressure. It was a great bowling performance from them. Unfortunately our batting hasn’t held up for the whole season. The last few games have been really poor.’’