Harper Sercombe
Melton South Royals are in a strong position at the end of day one in its Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 4 clash with St Andrews Footscray.
After being sent to the field at home the Royals were made to work hard for their first wicket. Despite Footscray not scoring runs at a fast rate, its opening partnership was able to put on 74 run stand to kick off the innings.
From there the Royals began to get into their work taking wickets consistently through the innings with Footscray’s best partnership after the openers, reaching just 20 runs.
The wickets were well shared around with Nathan Geisler, Sameera Vithana and Sachika Udara claiming two each to dismiss Footscray for 149 in the 62nd over.
“I’m pretty happy after Saturday, the wicket played really well, it was nice and flat so it was really hard work for the bowlers so we felt that 150 was definitely an achievable score to chase down,” Royals’ coach Blake Ivory said.
“I think the runs just weren’t really flowing, they were going at about two an over, so we weren’t overly concerned that if we could get some wickets after that we would be right back on top.
“The guys just stuck to the plans and the guys bowled really well early on we just couldn’t get that breakthrough. Once we got one or two we were able to take wickets regularly after that.”
After dismissing Footscray, the Royals had 15 overs at the crease, with opening batters Joshua Sutton and Nathan Waites doing well to reach stumps at 0-55.
“Then when our boys went out to bat late in the day, the goal was to not lose any wickets and we were able to do that,” Ivory said. “So we’ve set ourselves a really solid platform.”
“We’ve been in a few positions this year when we’ve bowled teams out and gone in to bat late in the day and lost late wickets, it just really halts momentum going into the next week. It was pleasing to be none down, the boys are going to take a lot of confidence in that.
“We’re in a pretty strong position, we’ve still got some work to do but hopefully we can get the job done.
“Next week we start again, start fresh and treat it as though we’re starting again.”
Mathematically finals are still on the cards for the Royals but it is a highly unlikely scenario. More importantly a win on Saturday guarantees the Royals a spot in division 4 next year, which is the first priority for Ivory.
“We’ve been low below our best this year, losing a couple of players and had a few injuries, it’s sort of been a stop, start season for us,” he said.
“We just want to finish off strong and give us a bit of momentum heading into next year. We know we’re up to the level we just need a bit more consistency in our game.”
