Tara Murray
Melton Lions Cricket Club will take plenty of positives out of its loss to Werribee in Saturday’s Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association east west.
For the Lions, who failed to win a match last season, an early season test didn’t get much bigger than Werribee, which has won two premierships in a row.
While the Tigers experience showed through, new Lions playing-coach Mitch Stephens said they would take plenty from the match.
“We’re looking at it as a positive, to test ourselves against the benchmark of the last couple of seasons,” he said.
“We will take a lot of learnings and while it was a loss there were a lot of positives and we’ll take a lot of stuff we can work on the next few weeks.
“We’ve been able to learn that stuff straight away.”
Stephens said everyone was keen to get on the field, after the first five weeks of the season hadn’t gone ahead due to rain and unplayable grounds.
He joked it had felt like a 10 month pre-season due to the long delayl.
Werribee won the toss and decided to bat, making 8-209 from its overs. Former Melton player Nathan Taylor top scored with 54.
Stephens said the Tigers class showed through to set up the big total.
“Our main concern was the fielding,” he said. “We dropped some easy chances and let the opening batters get off the mark.
“Taylor came to the crease and spread the field with ease with some class batting.
“We were bowling a boundary ball every over and it’s something we need to work on.”
Brad Jones was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3-22 off nine overs.
The Lions were then bowled out for 155 with 11 balls remaining.
There were a lot of starts for the Lions, with five players scoring in the 20s, but no one went on with it.
Jason Hibbert top scored with 28.
Stephens said it was a hard wicket to get in on.
“It was a tough wicket and a slow outfield,” he said. “The boys never gave up in the middle and lower order.”
Stephens, who took on the senior coaching role late in the piece, said he was enjoying the opportunity to see the game in another light.
He said it had been a refreshing experience and the committee and legends of the club were giving him and Joel Mitchener a bit of freedom to change things up at training.
“We are a new group,” he said. “The expectation was set exceptionally high but we want to be competitive in games and for the most part on Saturday we were in the game.”
The Lions this Saturday are back at home against Croydon.
In other results, Croydon beat Taylors Lakes, Spotswood was too strong for Donvale, Balwyn beat Box Hill, Hoppers Crossing recorded a win against Hoppers Crossing, Altona smashed Mt Waverley, Williamstown beat Noble Park and Endeavour Hills beat Yarraville in a high scoring affair.
