By Justin Flynn
Inverleigh captain Lachie Platt believes his side’s score of 178 all out against Jan Juc was “about par” after day one of round five on Saturday October 4.
In a battle of the BPCA A1 Grade’s two bottom sides, Inverleigh batted its full allotment of 75 overs to be dismissed for 178 at Jan Juc.
Platt said the going was tough, but praised his batters’ application to dig in for the entire day.
“Their spinners bowled well through the middle part,” he said.
“A few blokes, their strike rates weren’t high, but they did the job for us in the end, which was good.”
Kieran McNally top scored with 34 from 109 deliveries, Kobe George made 32 from 100 and Nathan Pisani hit 32 from 76.
A late 20 not out from 30 balls from Mason Dickson got the Kookaburras up to a competitive score.
Jan Juc spinners Mark Zahra (3/41 from 22 overs) and Tom Kearney (0/16 from 10) proved difficult to get away while left-arm seamer Jordy Graham was superb with 5/40 from 19 probing overs.
Platt said he hopes to have George in the side until at least Christmas, but that depended on Geelong Falcons preseason training commitments.
“Hopefully we see a bit of him, but obviously footy will come first,” he said.
“We should have him up until Christmas I’m hoping.”
Platt believes the competition is competitive this season and even though his side is winless after four games, they aren’t far off.
“Obviously Anglesea are the benchmark, but I think the likes of Armstrong Creek have come a fair way,” he said.
“I think every game is winnable, but you could also get beaten pretty easily as well. I think every game’s got a lot more 50/50 to it than it has been the last few years. Even Jan Juc haven’t won a game and they played in the grand final last year.”
With the bottom placed side to be relegated at the end of the season, Platt said finals were still on his mind.
“There’s still 10 games to go so to win this one would be very handy to get the ball rolling,” he said.
“We were pretty close last week, but I think if we can string a few games together we’ll be okay. We’ve had a lot of unavailability lately. We’ve had two or three changes each week, which makes it hard.”
Platt believes his side is more suited to the 75-over two-day version.
“Hopefully we get a few two-day wins and then maybe one or two one-days over the Christmas period,” he said.
BARRABOOL holds the upper hand against Ocean Grove, scoring 9/228.
Michael Kelson (40), Jack Purcell (38) and Kane Pickering (37 not out) all contributed for the Bulls.
Alex Mann bowled well for the Grubbers taking 2/27 from 15 overs while slow bowler Bailey Le Maistre gave nothing away with 2/57 from 24.
QUEENSCLIFF’s lower order saved it from embarrassment against Armstrong Creek.
At 8/90, the Coutas were staring at a sub-100 total, but Jordan Monahan dug in for an unbeaten 33 and Tom Kidd made 38 to go with Lachie Kidd’s 35 at the top of the order for a final total of 169. In-form fast bowler Lachlan Mulgrew took 3/15 for the Titans.
At stumps, Armstrong Creek safely negotiated 10 overs and was well placed at 0/35.
ANGLESEA was all out in the 75th over for 205 against Barwon Heads.
A 101-run opening stand between Steven Nicholson (51) and Tyron Norman (50) and a well-made 43 from Simon Umbers pushed the total to more than 200.
If not for the superb bowling of leg-spinner Dan Donaldson, it would have been more. Donaldson took 6/72 from 28 overs to give his side a sniff next week.
