Darley’s bowlers did a demolition job on Napoleons-Sebastopol’s batting line-up on Saturday to seal the Lions’ first win of the Ballarat Cricket Association season.
After a below-par performance on day one with the bat, the Lions were hoping for a much better second day.
Resuming at 8-92, the Lions didn’t spend long at the crease on Saturday, bowled out for 96.
The Lions bowlers were raring to go and didn’t allow Naps-Sebas to settle.
Naps-Sebas were 2-37, before the Lions bowlers took 5-2 to have them in real trouble at 7-39. The Lions got the job done quickly, bowling them out for just 69.
Lions’ coach Michael Alexander said it was a good result.
“It was a great win,” he said.
“As a group we thought it wasn’t an ideal score [we made], but it was a slow outfield and a reasonably difficult wicket to bat on.
“The bowlers were all fantastic and really disciplined and stuck to the game plan.”
Matt Cape, who didn’t play the opening day of the match because he was unavailable, was the star with the ball on day two, taking 6-16 off 14.2 overs which included six maidens.
Alexander said it was a risk worth taking.
“It’s always a risk and we felt because he can both bat and bowl and has a lot of experience it was worth taking it,” Alexander said.
“It paid off. It was repaying the faith a little bit, but there was no pressure on him.”
The win takes the Lions to 1-1 after two rounds, having lost the opener by six runs. A 0-2 record would have been hard to come back from.
“It’ll be a hotly contested top four and to lose the first two with only 10 games this season would have been hard,” Alexander said.
“We’re not far away from where we need to be, working on moving forward every week.”
The Lions still have four players to come into their side over the coming weeks.
The side’s number one batsman Lachlan Herring is expected to return this week after missing the first two rounds with injury.
Alexander said they also hoped to have their three Sri Lankan imports available sooner rather than later.
“How long is a piece of string?” Alexander said as to when they would be playing.
“Everything is in place and we’re just waiting on the all clear from immigration. It could be this week or could be the week after.”
Alexander said it was a good sign that even with players missing they were still in the mix in the first two rounds.
In even better signs for the depth at the club, the seconds won their first two games. They won two games in total last season.
