Wombats win as season ends

Last Tuesday saw the West Gippsland Wombats over 70s cricket team secure their first win of the season against the Glen Waverley Hawks at the Iona Cricket Oval.
John Moore won the toss and sent the Hawks into bat, which appeared to be another dubious decision as the Hawks scored 38 off the first 16 overs before they lost their first wicket when Jim Gregory caught David Hancock 18 (30) off Mike Newton's bowling.

Andy Pardalis (8 from 30) retired before Peter Fletcher(0 from 9) was bowled by Basil Kehayas. The Hawks lost 3/3 runs in three overs: Ernie Nallaih (7 off 3) bowled by Rod Pallot, Ransi Fernando (5 off 8) run out by a throw from Rod Pallot to Basil Kehayas and Rob Redmond (2 from 5) was bowled by Jon Martindale.
The score at the 20th over was 5/51. Chris Stocks (14), Derek Braidner (10) and Pat Dougherty (14) all retired before the Hawks lost their sixth wicket in the 36th over with the score on 95, when Winston Deprazer was bowled by Mike Newton for a fourth-ball duck.
Bruce Hotton(4 from 15) was caught by John Moore off Graham Davey's bowling. Andy Pardalis returned and was bowled by Mike Newton on the first ball back.
Chris Stocks returned and added six runs off eight balls before he was lbw to Mike Newton's bowling.
The Hawks lost their last wicket in the first ball of the 40th over when Derek Braidner (11 from 31) was bowled by Graham Davey, having lost 5/7 to finish all out for 103.
It was a great fight back by all the Wombats bowlers. Their statistics were: man of the match Mike Newton 8-4/16, Graham Davey 7.1-2/18, Rod Pallot 4-1/9, Jon Martindale 3-1/7, Basil Kehayas 5-1/14, Carl Muscat 4-0/15, Mick Scully 4-0/6, Jim Gregory 4-0/10.
The Wombats lost their first wicket in the second over when Carl Muscat (0 from 6) was bowled by Winston Deprazer, the score was 1/6 (the 6 runs were all extras).
Tight bowling by the Hawks restricted the run rate, as by the 13th over the score had reached 18 when Mick Scully (6 from 14) was bowled by Ernie Nallaih.
Rod Pallot retired after facing 30 balls and only scoring a single, also retiring was Mike Newton (7).
Bill Neaves (2 from 8) was caught by Chris Stocks off Andy Pardalis's bowling. The Wombats were 3/40 at drinks, needing 64 runs of the remaining 20 overs.
Basil Kehayas (8 from 26), was out hit wicket off Winston Deprazer's bowling and the Wombats were 4/41 off 23 overs.
Jon Martindale (9 from 30) retired before Graham Davey (14 from 23) was lbw to Chris Stocks' bowling.
Jim Gregory was caught by Pat Dougherty off David Hancock's bowling without scoring off two balls. The Wombats were 6/66 in the 30th over, still needing 37 off 10 overs, as John Moore scored (6 from 8) before he was bowled by David Hancock.
Russell Ferguson (7 from 14) was run out by Pat Dougherty. The first two retirees returned after scoring eight runs off 60 balls and this time they added: Rod Pallot eight runs off nine balls and Mike Newton six runs off 11 balls to take the Wombats' score to 8/106.
This was a very exciting game that could have been won by both teams, but the main difference was the inning of S. Undries, who scored 31 including 14 wides and 13 no balls.
Hawks bowling: Ransi Fernado 6-0/11, Winston Deprazer 8-2/12, Ernie Nalliah 5-1/9, Andy Pardalis 5-1/15, Chris Stocks 6-1.21, David Hancock 5-2/24, Pat Dougherty 1-0/8.
The Wombats could not follow up their good form on Sunday, however, after being defeated by WMD Veterans at Mount Evelyn Reserve in their final match of the season.
After scoring 7/172 - their highest total of the season - led by a strong innings from Michael Newton (40 from 38) the Wombats couldn't quite stop RMD's batting as they reached 6/181 after 38 overs.
Graham Davey was the Wombats' man of the match, claiming 3/23 from eight overs as well as scoring 19 from 44 balls.
Despite the loss, the Wombats showed plenty of improvement towards the end of the season.