RAIN clouds greeted Ringwood in its eagerly anticipated match against Hawthorn-Monash University in the last one-day match of the season on Saturday.

Third-placed Ringwood sent Hawthorn in to bat, a decision that was welcomed by the home side, who felt confident of building a significant total.

Rain caused a delay to the start after the toss and the match was reduced to 30 overs.

Openers Keith Perumal and Simon Dart kept the initial run rate at six per over to build a solid foundation and reached their 50 partnership off nine overs.

At the drinks break, the Hawks were 0-97 with Dart on 45 and Perumal on 32, but the introduction of spin and medium pace saw the partnership broken. Dart was out for 54 off 59 balls in an opening partnership of 108.

Steven Spoljaric (16) was out with the score on 134, while Perumal, showing great maturity, brought up his half century in the 27th over.

Steve Alleyne was caught on the fence for 37 from 24 balls. The partnership of 47 took the score to 181, and in the final overs, Perumal was caught at long on for 54 from 70 balls.

Matthew Hewat smashed the last ball of the innings through covers for a boundary that had the final score at 5-191 from 30 overs.

Given the challenge of over six runs per over it was thought that Ringwood may have changed the batting order, but went with the normal structure.

Dale Christie (1-19) and Rod Bird (0-8) settled on a length that did not allow the openers any space to strike boundaries.

Dart took a great diving catch to take the first wicket with 24 on the board. The run rate increased but with boundaries seeming to disappear, Ringwood was in trouble at 4-57.

With the last wicket falling to a catch by Dart from Hewat, Ringwood was all out for 123.

SCOREBOARD

HAWTHORN-MONASH UNIVERSITY v RINGWOOD

Hawthorn-Monash University innings

S DART c MJ King b MR King 54

K PERUMAL c MR King b DA King 54

S SPOLJARIC st Stray .. 16

D ALLEYNE c Gale b DN King 37