Hoppers Crossing just might be the real deal.
The Cats edged closer to a finals berth in their maiden sub-district cricket season, after a 68-run blitz of premiership contenders Caulfield at Hogans Road Reserve at the weekend.
Beating a top shelf opponent means the rest of the south-west group sits up and takes note, a confidence booster for the Cats in the run-in to finals.
“I’m excited,” Cats’ captain-coach Greg Kennedy told
Star Weekly. “It was a really good weekend. We’re a game clear of a big lot of teams now, but we’ve got to keep winning.”
The Cats are one of the form teams of the competition. They have won four games of their past six games with a tied match in between.
Their only loss during that six-game period came against ladder leader Oakleigh in a one-day game.Dinesh Daminda had his fingerprints all over the Caulfield win.
The 32-year-old fast bowler took 5-25 off 15 economical overs to be the main contributor to the demise of the top batting side in the competition.
Caulfield was all out for just 139 in their search for the Cats’ 9-207.
Daminda out-smarted the batsmen with patient build-up and unplayable money balls.
“There was a bloke who came in for them and I reckon he [Daminda] bowled eight balls to him, all out-swingers, all on off-stump or outside,” Kennedy said.
“I was fielding at point and was thinking, you can keep leaving them, but watch out for the in-swinger.
“After eight out-swingers, the next ball was an in-swinger that hit the top of off-stump.
“His thought process and execution was brilliant.”
It was a good team bowling effort from the Cats, with Kennedy (3-19), Alex Wyatt (1-33) and Brett Smith (1-15) all getting in on the act. It is no secret that bowling is the team’s strength with no visiting side having made more than 200 runs at Hogans Road since Kennedy returned to the club last summer.
“What we do really well is bowl in partnerships, and everyone keeps it tight,” Kennedy said.
“Dinesh got the five-for, but the rest of us all went for less than two an over, which means they had to continue to play their shots to our best bowler.
“The contribution has come from all four of us.”
It was not all plain sailing for the Cats, though. On the first day, they were in a spot of bother on 4-44, but the middle order revived the innings, with James Grixti (41) and Trent Said (39) playing huge roles for the Cats, building a competitive total.
“I got really grumpy after the Oakleigh game because the bottom five batsmen practically made a zero contribution,” Kennedy said.
“It’s nice to know our bottom half can hang in and get us over the line.”
