Harper Sercombe
It was a disappointing second day for Hoppers Crossing in its red ball clash with Preston on Saturday in the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association north-west.
After restricting Preston to just 212 from 56 overs before it was bowled out, the Cats weren’t able to chase the runs down this Saturday.
Instead the Cats only managed 149 before they were dismissed in the 55th over. Captain-coach Simon Lambert was again the Cats’ best scorer with 54.
Lambert said with every win important in the race to lock in a finals spot, it was a disappointing performance.
“Pretty disappointed to be honest,” he said. “The pitch wasn’t the greatest, it was pretty slow, pretty low, but there weren’t any demons in it.
“[A score of]210, I felt that that was probably under par and if we batted anywhere near our capabilities we would have been chasing that score down fairly comfortably.
“There were a lot of soft dismissals throughout the whole game really, not sure if it was the shift back to two-day cricket, but there were a lot of guys from both teams who gave up their wickets away in quite a soft manner, and not enough guys who wanted to just bat time.”
The Cats now sit one point out of a top six spot, with local rivals Werribee sitting in sixth position.
The two sides are set to play each other in the last round of the season which could determine finals.
“It was really disappointing to say the least, given the state of the ladder and the opportunities we’ve had,” Lambert said.
“Against Yarraville two rounds ago, chasing 160, chasing 200 in 100 overs on Saturday, to come out on the wrong side of both results it’s the difference between us being second and us being out of finals.
“It leaves us with work to do over the last four rounds, which are going to be tough against teams around us that are all fighting for the same end result. It’s going to go down to the wire if we want to be in that top six, we’re going to have to apply ourselves a lot better with the bat and ball.
“If we can bring our best, we’ve seen what we can do. If we can bring that sort of form to the last month of the season we’ll be right there, but if we don’t, you end up on the wrong side of the result, that’s the nature of the competition. If you don’t turn up and bring your best, you get beat.”
The Cats travel to Brunswick for a two day clash on Saturday.
Werribee meanwhile beat Ivanhoe in a thriller. Defending 227, the Tigers bowled Ivanhoe out for 226.
