By ADEM SARICAOGLU
ALTONA probably wouldn’t have been able to believe their luck on Saturday.
Melton, after choosing to bat first, had steadied in their Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association clash at Frank Kirk Oval after losing three early wickets.
With the security of the experienced Shane Harwood holding the fort at the other end, Melton captain Michael Allen managed to put on 88 runs with Harwood before the latter was run out by wicketkeeper Simon Jackson for 29.
Lee Elmore then trapped Jeremy Liddy on the pads for 13, but Allen remained solid.
He got to 99 with his side at 5/180, but what happened next will stick with him for the rest of the summer if Altona upsets the Lions this Saturday.
Allen, who made 96 a week earlier against Yarraville, edged the ball through to Jackson and looked gone.
However Jackson couldn’t hold on as the ball ricocheted into first slip.
Now Allen looked safe, but a second ricochet landed back in Jackson’s gloves, and just like that, Allen was walking back to the pavilion still shy of a century this season.
The fortunate sequence of events spurred the Altona bowling attack and the remaining wickets fell cheaply as Jake Roberts and Aaron Maynard cleaned up the tail to stop Melton at 214 after 66.4 overs.
Altona co-coach Mark Mitchell admitted the wickets of Harwood and Allen turned the day’s play in his side’s favour.
“It gave us a kick along,” Mitchell said.
“It opened up two fresh batsmen and Jake Roberts bowled really well after tea and got the breakthroughs we needed, so it was a good team effort – especially after being 4/140 at tea.
“It was a good fight back.”
Opening batsmen Adam Brown and John Varchione faced nine overs late in the day and managed to post 28 runs by stumps.
With Brown looking solid on 23 and a wealth of batting depth down the order, Mitchell is confident Altona can knock off the competition’s top side with 187 more runs needed for victory.
“Varchione and Brown did a great job to bat through for probably 40 minutes, and if we can get through the first hour with maybe only one wicket down that should hopefully set us up to chase that total,” Mitchell said.
“We’ve got three quality experienced players in Varchione, Maynard and Elmore, and we’d be hoping that two or three of those blokes will get us home.”
