HOPPERS Crossing is licking its wounds after a lacklustre opening to its top-of-the-table clash with Greenvale in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division.
The Cats were comprehensively beaten in all facets of play on a frustrating day best forgotten at Greenvale Recreation Reserve on Saturday.
As a result, they have likely coughed up the chance of moving into outright top spot on the ladder.
“We are just putting it down to one of those days,” Cats president Steve McNamara said. “When something goes wrong, everything goes wrong.”
The Cats’ inconsistencies with the bat reared as they were routed for a paltry 79 in 44 overs.
They were greeted with a slow track but that alone can’t be blamed for such a miserable total.
“We have three or four guys go out playing really poor shots,” McNamara said.
“You are going to have a bad one every year and hopefully we’ve got our bad one out of the way early and guys can improve from here.”
The Cats have their worries in the batting department. Their only top 20-ranked batsmen is the competition’s leading run scorer Michael Tubb. It falls off dramatically after that and McNamara concedes a number of his recognised batsmen have started the season slowly.
“Some guys haven’t fired a shot yet,” he said. “I think guys have got to work a little bit harder training and turn it around.
“Our boys recognised after the game that their preparation wasn’t great for this game and they weren’t particularly switched on early on.
“You find if you’re not 100 per cent on the ball from the start then it’s going to accentuate itself.”
Will Gardner top-scored for the Cats with 21. Chris Henry was looking strong before nicking a ball on 15.
Greenvale showed that runs can be made on their pitch, but had a fair share of luck en route to a quickfire 3-152 in 36 overs.
“We put down three catches and a couple of the catches that we dropped were absolute sodas,” McNamara said. “One of their guys, who got about 60, ‘Browny’ (Darrel Brown) bowled him on a no ball when he was on zero. It was that sort of day.”
Play will resume on Saturday with Greenvale leading by 73 runs.
VTCA
Senior division: Greenvale 3-152 v Hoppers Crossing 79
West B1: St Andrews 0-51 v Seabrook 129 (D Anderson 32 S Morgan 29); Point Cook 3-108 (D Hicks 41no) v Avondale Heights 101 (J Denton 5-30 J Farmer 3-17); Werribee Centrals 4-219dec (P Crea 70 S Jennings 54 L Simpson 39no MW Nankervis 32no) v Sunshine Heights 7-89 (S Crea 5-34)
