Harper Sercombe
After a lacklustre start to the Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association season, Hoppers Crossing is on a roll, winning its fourth game in a row on Saturday.
The Cats took on Plenty Valley and batted first putting on a strong score of 8-211 at Hogans Road Reserve, with Brett Smith leading the scorers with 63.
The Bats weren’t able to get anywhere near the Cats, being dismissed for 128 after just 42 of their 45 overs.
“We’re going well now, things are starting to come together,” Cats’ captain-coach Simon Lambert said.
“We know we’ve got the squad and the ability it’s just about putting it together and finally things are starting to click a little bit, we’ve been bowling really well since round two and the batting is starting to step up a little bit more now which has been a crucial factor and it’s shown in the last four rounds.
“We were really pleased to get over 200 considering we were 4-60 at halfway and we could have easily been all out for 140, so it’s a real sign of a good team, a team that can fight back from a losing position to really get into a position of strength.
“It easy for our bowlers when you’ve got 210 on the board it releases the pressure from the bowlers and puts a lot of pressure on their batters and they’re a side that’s a little bit down on confidence with the bat, so we were able to apply good pressure early, take a few early wickets and from there it was always going to be an uphill battle.”
While Smith top scored, Fawad Ahmed was potentially the most damaging putting on a quickfire 49 from just 30 falls, including five fours and three majors.
“It was a time in the game where it was stick or twist. We needed to try and find some quick runs to get the game moving, and fortunately he was able to come off and hit a few clean blows and get 49 in quick time which really helped us kick on,” Lambert said.
“I’m really pleased that he could put a score together and you know that if he comes off he can be pretty destructive and it was good he could come off on the weekend and hopefully he can do it a few more times before the end of the season.”
Even though Lambert is pleased with the batting side of his team’s game coming together, the bowling remains their strength with quality bowlers across their team.
“I think we’re bowling with real discipline at the moment, and we’re applying a lot of pressure on the opposition and it’s been supported in the field as well which is really important,” he said.
“When you’ve got a score like that on the board teams have got to come at you from bowl one and if they don’t execute well there are chances for us and fortunately we’ve been able to take those chances and put the opposition behind the eight ball pretty early in the last few rounds so hopefully we can continue to keep doing that.”
Werribee also got a win on Saturday, beating Strathmore.
