By Tara Murray
The Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west finals are wide open according to Hoppers Crossing coach Simon Lambert.
A loss to Spotswood on Saturday ended the Cats hopes of finishing top but the side has already secured its finals berth.
Lambert said with how close the competition is, anyone can beat any one and he wasn’t sure that home ground advantage would be a benefit in finals.
“We are back in the pack, but I don’t think it will matter,” he said. “We are happy to play any team in the top six.
“It would have been nice to finish first but that is now out of the equation. I think it’s quite possible any of the top two could be beaten in the first round.”
Lambert said on recent form he felt Spotswood was the top team in the competition. Until the win on Saturday, the Woodsmen had been sitting outside the for six.
The Woodsmen made 5-326 on day one of the match in hot conditions.
Lambert said fielding in that heat and being without Shijit Chandran Poovathingal hadn’t helped their cause against an experienced batting line up.
“We were up against it.”
He said they knew they were up against it on day two, but thought it would be a good challenge for their batting line up to see if they could chase down a big total.
“We thought we could get it,” he said. “We were going well and I got an lbw that wasn’t out.
“That turned the game a little, which was a bit disappointing. We didn’t have enough big partnerships.”
The Cats were bowled out for 236 in the 72nd over.
Lambert top scored with 56, while Brett Smith scored 52.
The captain-coach said with a number of young players in the top six of their batting line up they would continue working on their batting confidence against Williamstown this Saturday.
“It’s a completely different format to finals, so it will be hard to get a gauge,” he said. “Hopefully we can pile on the runs with the bat which we haven’t done as well as we would have liked and hopefully win the game.
“We’ve got three under-20 in our top six and are learning their way in the game which does make it hard sometimes. We don’t have the same experience as Spotswood.
Lambert said Chandran Poovathingal would miss the final round of the season, but would hopefully be back for the first week of finals.
Meanwhile, Werribee lost to Williamstown on Saturday.
Chasing 8-232, the Tigers were bowled out for 115 in the 54th over.
Ryan Alifraco top scored with 30.
The Tigers, who are out of finals contention, will finish their season against Brighton.
