There is no hiding from the fact it has been a lean summer at the crease for Werribee captain Tim O’Brien, by his own lofty standards.
But O’Brien snapped out of his funk as cornerstone of the Tigers on Saturday, imposing 8-272 against Bayswater in sub-district cricket at Bayswater Oval on Saturday.
“It’s been a long time between drinks for me this year,” O’Brien said. “It was good to get amongst the runs.”
O’Brien is one of Werribee’s most versatile cricketers. If one area of his game is down on form, another area validates his spot in the side.
Besides his leadership as captain, O’Brien has been a solid contributor with the ball, and has taken six catches in the field.
But O’Brien’s main asset is his batting, and when he’s firing on all cylinders, more often than not, so is Werribee.
Shaun Dean, who put on a 127-run partnership with O’Brien for the third wicket, reckons O’Brien is the key to a thriving middle order.
“It was good for him to get a big score and, hopefully, it will kickstart him for the last three games,” Dean said.
“If he can get going in that middle order and we can get a good start, we’ll be posting those 270-type scores every week, as we have done for the last four or five years.
“He’s definitely the key in there.”
O’Brien has pointed to a bit of bad luck for his below average season. He says he was “a bit stiff” with a couple of umpiring decisions. There have been some unfavourable pitches to bat on and there is a slight technical flaw may have crept into his game that needs to be analysed.
“It’s just one of those years where instead of playing and missing at balls, you’re nicking them,” O’Brien said. “I don’t think I’ve done too much different with training, but it might be something technically that I haven’t been doing right.
“There was also a couple of games that I was a bit stiff with rough decisions, and some of the wickets we’ve played on haven’t been as good either, but the wicket at Bayswater was an absolute beauty.”
For a day at least, O’Brien put aside his struggles and found his form of old. If it were not for a run-out, O’Brien likely would have registered his first century in more than a year.
“It was disappointing (to get run out), but the main thing is to put a good score on the board,” he said. “I wasn’t too concerned about 100.
“I was pushing us to make more than 270, which we did in the end.”
O’Brien is hoping his formline runs the opposite to last season, and he gets to play a major role in Werribee making a late charge to the finals.
“Last year, I did the opposite, started the season pretty well and didn’t finish off the year too well. Hopefully, I can string a few scores together and help the team out, and (we can) win every game and hopefully play finals,”
