Geelong City captain Byron Taylor said his side’s Geelong Cricket Association Division 2 match against Alexander Thomson is “in the balance” after a rain-interrupted day one.
Only 59 overs were possible at Richmond Oval with Alexander Thomson set to resume on 6/153.
“They’ve still got the opportunity to bat an extra 20-odd overs,” Taylor said.
“If they get a few runs, it could slip away from us, but at the same time, if we get a few early ones, maybe that changes it a bit.”
Taylor said it was difficult to predict what total the Sharks would be comfortable chasing.
“It probably depends how many overs we’ve got to bat,” he said.
“I don’t really have a number for you, but I guess whatever it is, we’ve still got to apply ourselves to try and make them with whatever time we’ve got.”
Taylor won the toss and sent the Vikings in with the middle order getting starts. Nakia Pearce (42), Sam Welsh (37) and Tayne Hewson (30) worked hard against some accurate Geelong City bowling.
Taylor was his side’s only multiple wicket taker with 2/36 from 16 overs. He said his attack bowled well.
“It was just a matter of trying to restrict runs and bowl some tight lines to build that pressure,” he said.
“We had a little bit of a focus this week as a bowling group to try and bowl a few more maidens. You get hit for a few runs when you have that boundary ball every over, which just releases a bit of pressure (for the batting team).
So that was a focus from us yesterday to try and do that.”
The Sharks are just outside the top four while an Alexander Thomson would put it back in the equation for finals.
“It’s an important game for us, this one, considering where we are on the ladder,” he said.
“Obviously we would have liked another win, but playing a couple of the top teams, they’re playing some good cricket as well so it just makes this game important for us.”
So far Taylor is happy with the way things are going at Richmond Oval in his first season in charge.
“I think the buy-in from everyone has been good and we’ve got some strong youth around the club as well,” he said.
“That’s really been good to see the development and then the boys buy-in to what we’re trying to do, which has been really pleasing. “
HIGHTON leg-spinner Fionn Neeson took 5/13 against Bell Post Hill on day one of Geelong Cricket Association Division 2 and has a chance to add to that this Saturday.
Neeson not only took wickets, but conceded just 13 runs from as many overs with Bell Post Hill reaching 8/147 from 64 overs after rain prevented a full day’s play.
LEOPOLD’S top seven batters all made contributions in a big score of 8/310 from 75 overs against Bell Park.
Joseph Vallelonga (71) top scored while youngster Henry Hatswell made 58 with Hayden Butterworth’s 22 the lowest individual score in a fine batting effort for the visitors.
TOM Dunn (4/21) and John Fisher (3/24) took seven wickets between them for Torquay to have Geelong West all out for 139.
Ash Russell sent down 19 overs and conceded just 30 while also taking the wicket of Dhanush Satishkumar for 35.
In reply, Torquay made it safely to stumps without loss with Tristan Kassis scoring all 14 runs.
