Melton was unable to win its second game for the season on Saturday, although it didn’t go down without a fight against St Bernard’s in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association north-west.
The Lions lost the toss with St Bernard’s deciding to bat, which at first seemed like the perfect toss to lose as they had St Bernard’s on the ropes at 6-34, including three wickets in four balls for Rhys Berry to put Bernard’s at 4-15.
Yet an eighth wicket partnership between Conor McGuire and Kyle Adams rescued St Bernard’s taking their side from 8-59 to 9-167, before eventually ending the innings at 9-173.
Berry was the standout bowler for the Lions taking 3-20.
Lions’ coach Mitch Stephens said it was disappointing to not reap the benefits of their good early work.
“There have been a couple of moments throughout the year where we have bowled well throughout the middle but haven’t been able to close off an innings, just certain little areas in terms of where we are bowling and our lines and plans that we’re not executing at the moment,” he said.
“We’ve spoken about that as a bowling group and I’m sure the guys are working hard on their plans and working with Ben MacRae (captain). It’s just not coming off at the moment which is very disappointing.
“Rhys Berry has been awesome for us all year and he’s only missed out on wickets in one game this year so he’s been a massive inclusion for us this season and he benefits on and off the field, he works hard off the field as well and supports his teammates around him which is great.
“They are very good competition St Bernard’s, but I think our boys just lost key moments of the game yesterday and we spoke about it after the game, it was another game that we have been in the fight for but we’ve found a way to lose, it’s disappointing but these little moments keep adding up throughout the year.”
The Lions’ innings began better than their oppositions with Brenton Cook opening the batting and top scoring for his side with 54. However, the rest of the innings was scarred by wickets falling close together, making partnership batting and run scoring tough.
The Lions were bowled out for 149 with seven balls left in the innings.
“All credit to Brenton Cook again, he’s starting to come through now with his runs, he’s had two starts the last couple of weeks, but he knows he really missed out on going big after a dominant start like that,” Stephens said.
“Our middle order just lose key wickets at the moment in clumps, you can never get on top in a run chase when you lose wickets in clumps.
“We only lost by 24 runs, it’s not the worst result… It was disappointing but we’re still learning, still developing from a lot of key points during the game.”
Next week the Lions face Taylors Lakes, in another one-day match, which remain in a strong position on the ladder despite losing their last two matches.
“Every week is different, especially in the white ball game, it’s whoever performs best and for longer on the day,” Stephens said.
“We speak about being more disciplined for longer, so we will bring our best and no doubt go hard again.”
