By Marcus Uhe
Endeavour without belief won’t advance anyone in any pursuit.
Dandenong West Cricket Club knows it, and Riley Siwes, deputising for Anthony Brannan as the club’s captain-coach, is acutely aware of it.
Siwes is experiencing a golden run of sporting success in 2024, having won both a cricket premiership with Dandenong West back in March, and a football flag last month with Narre Warren.
In leading the Bulls into their early conquests back into the Dandenong District Cricket Association’s Turf 1 competition, Siwes knew he needed to convince his players that they belong at the level.
Beginning their season with an underdog win over Berwick, is certainly one way to cultivate it.
“It’s one thing to say ‘I believe’, but it’s another to actually believe,” Siwes said.
“I believed today and I think there were a few of them with me.
“It’s something you’ve got to get into the boys and keep letting them know ‘We’re good enough here,’ – It doesn’t matter who we come up against on any given day, we can beat them.
“It’s definitely something we’ve got to get into them but bit-by-bit, today’s a good start.”
On a day in which the Bulls had local dignitaries make the trip to the Dandenong Showgrounds to hoist last season’s Turf 2 premiership flag, it was the Dandenong West of 2024/25 that stole the show, downing a highly-touted Berwick outfit by five wickets.
A combination of controlled, meticulous bowling and steady heads in the chase saw them reel-in Berwick’s total of 201 in the 43rd over, and put the remainder of the competition on notice.
Berwick made an excellent start with the bat through Jarryd Wills and Matt Hague, racing to a 58-run stand in quick time, but the Bears lost consistent wickets in the middle order to squander a position of supremacy.
Wills had his eye in, crunching four sixes and two fours in his cameo, including a glorious straight six that nearly reached the train line.
He had his eye on one-too-many big shots however, as his appetite brought his eventual downfall to the wily Peter Atkinson, before an Adam Reid off-cutter breached the defences of Jake Hancock.
Hague and big-name recruit Michael Wallace consolidated the opening platform, taking Berwick to the brink of triple figures before drinks, but a decisive pair of wickets in consecutive deliveries from Nuwan Kulasekara immediately following the break changed the complexion of the match.
Kulasekara beat Wallace for pace on 10 to shatter his stumps, then pinned Jordan Cleland low on his pads to have the wicketkeeper-batter on his way for a golden duck, swinging momentum in the Bulls’ favour.
Pairing with fellow Sri Lankan Malinga Bandara at the other end, the pair completely suffocated any momentum in Berwick navy blue, building on the efforts of Reid and Atkinson earlier in the day.
Toby Wills and Hague added 29 for the fifth wicket but Wills’ departure, bowled by Bandara for 15, and that of James Trodd and Lachlan Brown shortly after, had the Bears in deep trouble.
Trodd took the attack to the Bulls bowlers but skied an attempted slog sweep that eventually dropped into the hands of Venuk Hemachandra after lingering in the air for an age.
Hague, the lynchpin at the top of the order, eventually made way for an excellent 67, falling to a sharp catch behind the stumps from Matt Collett off Siwes’ leg spin, leaving Luke Clarke and Jarrod Goodes to scramble some runs at the death
Kulasekara finished with the best figures of the afternoon, taking 3/40 from his 12 overs, as Siwes also added three.
Dandenong West’s innings got off to a poor start, losing recruit Don Pulukkuttiarachchi in the opening over to Berwick’s English import Trodd, but his opening partner in Shaun Weir proved harder to dislodge.
Weir kept the scoreboard ticking as his partners played patient knocks, tied down by Berwick’s experienced and varied bowling group.
Using their home ground knowledge, the Bulls worked the gaps and picked up singles and twos on offer far better than their opponents throughout the batting innings to ensure momentum never fizzled out.
Weir eventually fell for 62 off 64 deliveries at 3-110 but left an established Siwes at the wicket, having shared in a 62-run partnership.
Kulasekara then offered his second significant contribution of the afternoon, crunching a boundary-laden 43 to put his side back in pole position, allowing Siwes (48), Bailey Howarth and Bandara, to wrap up the remainder of the runs required.
The final overs made for tense scenes as the sun dropped, but the Bulls, as they so often have in the last two seasons, found the resolve when required to grind out a sensational result with 10 deliveries to spare.
“We set out to win a few early, and to go ‘bang’ straight away, shows that we’re in this to give it a red hot crack,” Siwes said.
“I won’t lie; all week I’ve been thinking about playing the Bears – I definitely had it on my calendar and I was a bit nervous coming in.
“They’re a fantastic outfit and they’re going to go a long way.
“Their batting today had us on the back foot early and they had a lot of quality batters that bat really deep.
“We wanted to win one early and show the competition that we’re here, so it’s awesome. “Hopefully momentum runs in, we get more people to training and more people to the games.”
Hague, Cory Bevan and Trodd all offered tidy bowling spells with the ball, with Trodd taking 1/33 from 9.4 overs.
It’s both a huge win for the Bulls, and a disappointing opening to the year for Berwick, a team that can ill-afford to drop such contests in what is expected to be another tight race for a finals berth.
Their ability to post big totals with the bat was a weakness last summer, with Hancock often shouldering far too much responsibility at the top of the order, prompting the recruitment of Wallace to pair with him in the middle.
Wallace failed to make an impact in his first contest at the level after a brilliant handful of seasons in Victorian Premier Cricket, tied down by Reid and Atkinson before falling to the brilliance of Kulasekara.
