Plenty Valley’s finals hopes come to an end after another batting collapse
Plenty Valley captain Ryan Pearson admits his team’s batting collapses have been a major stumbling block this season and another against Ormond brought the Bats’ premiership defence to a close.
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Plenty Valley’s VSDCA premiership defence is over.
The Bats will miss First XI finals for the first time since 2010-11 after Saturday’s 18-run loss to Ormond.
As has been the story for much of Plenty Valley’s season, the bowlers set up a seemingly straight-forward chase only for the batsmen to collapse.
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Ormond posted 9-148 at Gunn Reserve and the Bats made a solid start before falling apart to be skittled for 130.
“We just bottled it with the bat. In eight games this season we’ve lost 8-100, it’s just been the story of the year,” captain Ryan Pearson said.
“There were four or five really ordinary dismissals, really stupid times in the game, when we were cruising. When you lose 10 wickets for 100 (runs), you’re not going to win too many games.”
It was an impressive effort by Ormond after it was reduced to 4-15 and 6-63 during its innings.
After reaching 0-30, Pearson (13), Daniel Heatley (6) and Callum Nankervis (0) fell in quick succession to leave the Bats 3-39.
Simon Black (18) and Blake Pearson (45) rebuilt but when Black was dismissed at 4-64, Vihanga Fernando followed without troubling the scorers.
Pearson departed at 7-107 and there was too much work left for the tail, leaving Pearson to ponder “what if?”.
“We’ve been in a winning position in every game after Christmas and if we had (taken advantage) we’d probably be sitting second,” he said.
“Oakleigh we should have won, (Saturday) we should have won, Brighton we should have made 350 – or at least 300 – from where we were and probably win that too.
“Now we’re wondering what might have been.”
Plenty Valley sits third last on the North-South group ladder with two games remaining.
The Bats host last season’s South-West group grand finalists Elsternwick at War Memorial Park and finish the season with a trip to Moorabbin.
Despite the disappointing season, Pearson remained upbeat about the Bats’ future.
“Everyone’s sticking around for next year, the same group, which we think is a really good group,” he said.
“We’ve brought in a couple of young blokes, the two Vihangas – Kumarage and Fernando – they’ve been really good since they came in and will continue to get opportunities.”