By Alesha Capone
Hoppers Crossing Cricket Club may have been defeated on Saturday but they remain upbeat about the rest of the season.
Hoppers Crossing lost to Port Melbourne in a round 11 Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association (VSDCA) south-west match at Hogans Road Reserve.
Hoppers Crossing final score of 9-211, fell short of Port Melbourne’s 221.
Hoppers Crossing vice president Kane Colgan said there were some definite highlights for his club on the weekend.
“I think Hendro Dias with 75 was quite important, he is now back at the club,” Colgan said.
“It was his second game back at the club after playing premier cricket.
“Brett Smith, he was hitting runs and batting in the middle order, I think he’s got over 300 for the year, he’s having an impressive season.”
“Jeremy Swan took 6-39, he’s been quite impressive this year and leading the way with wickets.”
Colgan said the Hoppers Crossing men’s 2nd XI experienced a “pretty close loss” with Port Melbourne.
“We scored 200, they scored 213,” he said.
“Unfortunately the team couldn’t get over the line but they put in quite a good effort chasing a large total.
“Qasim Naqvi, he hit 73 in the second XI on Saturday.”
Colgan said that when it came to the Cricket Victoria’s women’s north/west “top of the table clash” round 10 competition on Sunday, February 6, “Essendon just got us I think, with 11 runs”.
“With the bat, Kayla Koropeckyi hit 43 runs and she’s been our leading run scorer for years, and with the ball Muskam Sandhu, she took four wickets for 20 runs, she is our leading wicket-taker and has come a long way this season,” he said.
Colgan said it was “probably unlikely” that Hoppers Crossing would be playing finals in any of the men’s top four grades.
He said that with that even if Hoppers Crossing’s 1st XI men’s team wins the next four weeks’ worth of matches, they still might not make enough points to reach the grand final.
Colgan added that COVID-19 has impacted the club this season too, forcing players to miss some games, although they have been absent for other reasons as well.
He said this could cause issues with selection, as sometimes players pulled out the day before a match.
“You have just got to do your best and roll with the punches,” he said.
“It does test your depth.
“We usually field six men’s teams but sometimes we have not been able to field all at once.”
Colgan said that rather than thinking in terms of winning each season, the club aimed to win every match they played.
“We simply get out there every week, put in our best effort and try to win that game of cricket,” he said.
“I think for us, we just want to have the best sort of finish to the season that we can as a group and play more cricket and finish the season on a high.
“We also really want to get behind the women as the finals approach.”
