By Tara Murray
Hoppers Crossing has claimed its first top grade silverware in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association.
The Cats were crowned the T20 champions on Tuesday night after beating Elsternwick in a thrilling grand final.
It was a special moment for the club according to captain-coach Simon Lambert.
“It was a really good result for the club,” he said. “It’s the first first XI trophy since we moved into the Subbies.
“We felt like we had a pretty good side for it and it suits us pretty well. It doesn’t always work out, we thought that last year too and lost a couple of games.”
The Cats were sent in at Elsternwick Park on Tuesday night and made 3-157 from their overs.
Lambert, who top scored with 67, said they were happy with that total.
“I would have happily taken that at the start of the game,” he said.
The Cats started well with the ball, having Elsternwick in trouble at 2-14.
The Cats then let themselves down in the field and Elsternwick got back into the game.
“We’ve dropped a few catches this season and dropped four last [Tuesday] night,” Lambert said.
“We dropped four easy ones off two key players. If we took the chances it would have been a lot more comfortable and we would have won by 30 odd runs.”
Lambert said Elsternwick kept coming at them with their lower order putting the pressure back on them.
It came down to the last couple of overs.
“In the second last over it was starting to look like we would go from winning to looking like we would lose it,” Lambert said.
“They needed 11 off the last over and their guys were hitting well. It could have gone with way, but we got the key guy out on the third last ball and got over the line.”
Yuvraj Singh and Abbas Faiyaz took three wickets each for the Cats.
Lambert was awarded man of the match. He said it was nice to do something in the T20s after a quiet campaign in the earlier matches.
Lambert said one of the more pleasing things was that the side was now winning close games.
“We beat Yarraville by two runs and won this one by six runs,” he said. “We weren’t winning those close games the last few years.”
With one title under their belts, the Cats are now focused on trying to add the south-west title to their cabinet.
They currently sit in second spot.
“We’ve played 16 games this year and only lost two,” Lambert said. “That’s a pretty good record and we’re playing with plenty of confidence.
“If we win this weekend it basically ensures that we play finals. Hopefully we can keep the momentum going and see how high we can finish.
“We want to finish on top.”
