BRENDON Diamanti turned Rockingham-Mandurah’s round seven Western Australian Premier Cricket match against Claremont-Nedlands with a scintillating spell of seam bowling.
The New Zealand all-rounder has been getting it done with bat and ball in 2015/16 but after the Mariners scored 200 at Cresswell Park, he blew the game wide apart with 4/4 from six overs.
The Tigers are teetering at 4/19 as Diamanti made the ball talk with two players caught behind and another two batsmen leg before wicket.
He has two half centuries to be the third highest scoring Mariner this season to go with 14 wickets to top the bowling charts.
Earlier, the experienced hands pushed the visitors score to something resembling respectable as Craig Simmons went back to the opener’s position to post 54.
Josh Smith slid back down to bolster the middle order with immediate effect in making 37.
Brayden Sutton provided the backbone as he has done throughout the past two seasons for Rockingham-Mandurah in making a polished unbeaten 72.
His 348 runs this season have come from three half centuries as he currently sits in second place for runs scored in the competition.
The visiting Mariners also got amongst the Tigers in third grade as the bowlers pushed the hosts over for 131 at Melvista Oval.
The young attack stuck to a controlled line and length in 67 overs of graft as Eric Botha (3/17), Wesley Steele (3/39), Jordan Brokate (2/18) and Adam France (2/25) impressed.
At stumps, Rockingham-Mandurah is 2/21 with Carey Green and Tony Coulson the ones to play the important steady hands to get third grade past the target and beyond.
At Lark Hill, both games are in the balance as second and fourth grades will chase over 200 this Saturday.
Ryan Done took his second handful in a row and Leon Coombs rode shotgun as Claremont-Nedlands made 277 with the Mariners cautiously moving to 1/21 at stumps.
Done’s 5/81 kept his name in front of the selectors, while Coombs’ 4/46 was his best performance back from shoulder surgery in January.
In fourth grade, the Mariners have reduced the total down to less than 200 as they rattled onto 1/45 at stumps after dismissing the Tigers for 236.
Danny Woollard was the man dismissed for 27 after captain Lewis Pitts broke the back of the visitors with 3/27 and Ben Miles chimed in with 3/35.
Rockingham-Mandurah smashed South Perth to take their spot in the women’s B grade Twenty20 top four before the last qualifying game against Midland-Guildford this Sunday.
The 10-wicket win was built on another superb Caitlin Crocetta performance as she took 2/12 in the Sky Blues’ score of 3/94.
However, the Mariners made light work of the tricky chase inside 14 overs as Crocetta hammered 55 from 40 balls with nine fours with assistance from Mel Saunders (29 not out).
Saunders was at it the day before for the under 18s with 33 not out in getting the Mariners to 3/89 in reply to Midland-Guildford’s 5/85.
Jazmyne Roberts (2/6) and Claire Sadler (2/15) were instrumental with the ball in keeping the home side within reach at Swan View Park.
Byron Blevin fought hard for 93 to give the under 15s a large total of 9/220 at Lark Hill.
The opener soaked up 166 deliveries but was stumped just seven short of a well-earned ton as Ronan Hogarth (32) followed by Bevan Kearney (34) played entertaining hands.
The under 17s will need to defend with all their might as they could muster just 9/157 against Claremont-Nedlands.
Damien Burrage made the early headway with 60 and Griffin Polglaze (35 not out) played a cameo that may prove to be important for the Mariners.
The under 13 and under 14 teams lost to Claremont-Nedlands as they gain more experience playing cricket on turf in their early representative teams.
Aside from the conclusion of round 7, Sunday will see T20 hopes go on the line as the women host Midland-Guildford for a semi-finals berth, while the men cross paths out to Guildford for two matches against University and Midland-Guildford to move onto the next stage.
