St Bernard’s recruit Nish Perera hits maiden century against Elsternwick

A maiden Nish Perera century has put St Bernard’s in the box seat in their VSDCA clash against finals rival Elsternwick. See all the day one scores.

A Nish Perera ton has St Bernard’s in the box seat in its VSDCA clash with finals rival Elsternwick.

Perera’s sensational 112 is his maiden First XI and Subbies century and guided the Snowdogs to a total of 265 at St Bernard’s College on Saturday.

The 180-ball knock included 16 boundaries and a pair of sixes and was a clear standout with the next best score Chris Spinella’s 37.

Perera has two Premier Cricket Second XI hundreds to his name, including a match-winning 106 in the 2016-17 Grand Final victory over Frankston Peninsula, but this was his first at senior level.

St Bernard’s captain-coach Kyle Adams was rapt for his new recruit.

Nishal Perera scored his maiden First XI century for St Bernard’s. Picture: Hamish Blair

“He batted amazingly … he showed his class,” Adams said.

“Nish rotated the strike, didn’t get bogged down and can accelerate when he wants to.

“It’s great to have him come in this year and slot into our top five.

“He’s hit one in a Second XI grand final … mind you Second XI Premier Cricket is still a very good standard, so to do that in a big game is an indication of the player he is.

“We’re rapt for him to get his first ton, he’s the third person in the last couple of weeks after Rory (Collins) in the T20 and one of our guys (Conor Cheshire) in the Fifths.”

After walking to the crease at 2-37, Perera and Spinella steadied the ship with a critical 76-run partnership.

Perera also shared a 56-run fifth-wicket stand with Alex Maynard.

“It would have been nice for another guy to get a 50 and push on, I think that stopped us from getting that score of 290 to 300 and above,” Adams said.

“Elsternwick bowled very disciplined and the outfield was probably the slowest it’s been all year, that’s probably another 30 runs if it’s the normal outfield.

Aaron Smillie in action for St Bernard's. Picture: Julian Smith

“We’re still very happy to get 265, it gives us a good target to defend next week.”

Dasun Opanayaka (3-39) and Kalhan Sineth (3-77) were the leading Elsternwick bowlers.

The Wicks will chase this Saturday, looking to bounce back from a rough loss to ladder-leaders Kew last week.

St Bernard’s attack has been bolstered by the return of experience paceman Aaron Smillie following a pre-season injury kept him off the park until the new year.

Smillie will combine with Adams and Luke Davis in one of the most potent pace batteries in the competition.

Adams said the runs on the board would allow the Snowdogs to start with a little more aggression.

“I don’t think we have to go overly aggressive, we’ll see how the deck is playing, (but) when you’ve got over 200 on the board you can afford to have a few more slips in early and not worry about early runs and tempt the drive.

“It gives us more options, they’ll need a couple of good partnerships - rather than one good one - to get to that score.

“It will be good to see Aaron steaming in for his first game.

“Rowdy (Davis) is bowling really well, although his figures at times don’t show it.

“We’ve also got (Steve) Shields, who has a knack for picking up wickets early in his spell, he bowls a really good line and length and comes onto the bat a bit quicker than guys think.

“He goes under the radar a little bit but he’ll pick up his two wickets a game and doesn’t go for a lot of runs.

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“Then we can throw Nish the ball and he can bowl 25-30 overs from one end, it’s good for a captain to have so many options.”

Elsewhere in the North-South group, Brunswick is 0-24 after dismissing Preston for 152 behind David Bonavia’s 3-33 and Louis Cameron’s 3-37, while Coburg struck late to have Strathmore 2-31 chasing 185.

Andrew Chalkey’s 85 and David Wildsmith’s 80 helped Kew reach 9-251 against Ormond and Solomon Mire’s brilliant 111 saw Malvern post 238 against Port Melbourne.

Moorabbin will look to defend 229 thanks to Vishva Wijeratne’s 108 against Oakleigh, Brighton (2-97) is on top against Plenty Valley (134) and Caulfield (2-166) is chasing an outright win over Ivanhoe (68 and 1-20) with Andrew King (5-20) and Daniel Forbes (85no) dominant.