Cricket Southern Bayside: How Mentone plans to capitalise on fighting finish

Mentone skipper Dane Heverin believes his side is back in its contest with ladder-leading South Caulfield after swinging the game on the cusp of stumps.

Mentone batter Comrey Edgeworth. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Mentone captain Dane Heverin says the Tigers have “given ourselves a chance” after a lively finish to play on Saturday.

The game was slipping away from the Tigers when South Caulfield dismissed the hosts for 169 and motored to 1-48 in reply.

But a frantic final few overs, in which Mentone captured 3-2, shifted the game back to a balanced position at stumps.

The ladder leaders need a further 108 runs with six wickets in hand when play resumes this week.

Heverin said the state of the pitch gave the Tigers confidence they could defend the total provided they started well.

“We definitely would’ve liked to score more runs but the pitch still had plenty of grass on it so we knew there was plenty there for the bowlers,” he said.

“If you look through the scorecard quite a few guys got starts and got out without doing much wrong, just copping good balls because that’s what the surface was doing.

“We knew we had to hunt wickets and make the most of it, so we were probably a bit more aggressive than normal.”

Lewis Mildenhall of South Caulfield.Picture: George Sal

The Tigers started perfectly, dismissing South star Brad Erasmus cheaply before the match seesawed again.

The visitors built to 1-48 before Michael Waller (2-7) and Ed McGarry (1-27) snared three late wickets to close out play.

“Charlie (Bourne) coming on early and getting Erasmus – that was big,” Heverin said.

“The message is pretty clear: we’ve given ourselves a chance.

“Now it’s about making sure we’re taking that opportunity next week, a couple of times we’ve played them their bowlers have shown the way.

“They’ve been relentlessly accurate and get a bit out of the wicket by doing that, that’s the exact same message to our guys, that’s how they have to do it and we’ll reap the rewards if we do that.”

Mentone batter Comrey Edgeworth. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Heverin remains assured the Tigers have enough on the board if they start day two strongly, particularly with the new wickets at Mentone.

“It makes for really good cricket, there’s pace and bounce and can be some in it for the bowlers but you get value because there is that pace to hit through the line,” he said.

A win for Mentone would keep it in touch with a tight Championship Division top four.