A week of soul searching has got Little River back on track in the Geelong Cricket Association’s division 3 firsts.
The players aired their grievances in a hastily put together team meeting following a round-four belting from Shelford.
The Redbacks followed up the words with actions in an incredible outright-in-a-day win over North Shore, along with a Twenty20 triumph over Teesdale – all in the space of seven days.
“We had the team meeting and assessed where we wanted to be and what we wanted to do, and the boys came out firing,” Redbacks captain Nathan Kenyon said.
The Redbacks achieved a rare outright win inside a day over North Shore in the longer format. They started the rout by dismissing North Shore for 55 in 34 overs.
The Redbacks hit a quickfire 4-87 declared in 15 overs to bowl at the shaky hosts a second time in the afternoon.
“I said to the boys, ‘We’re going to bat 15 overs and put them back in’,” Kenyon said. “We made 87 off those 15 and declared, and there were 21 overs left in the day.”
North Shore was out for 38 in 15 overs in its second dig.
The Redbacks picked off the runs without the loss of a wicket for a comprehensive win.
“It was just one of those days you have where everything goes to plan,” said Kenyon, who was at the forefront of the victory. The third-year captain led by example with nine wickets for the match with his off-spin and 54 runs at first drop.
With a space created on the calendar due to the Redbacks’ wrapping up victory on day one, they rescheduled one of their T20 knockout encounters to Saturday.
The Redbacks (4-144) stormed to a big win over Teesdale (69), with Kenyon again impressive with five wickets and 37 runs, while Jye Kenna contributed 37.
This was a big psychological hurdle for the Redbacks to clear. “They beat us in round one and at the moment they’re 5-0 [in the league],” Kenyon said. “Today really showed what we can do. Playing against a quality side and to have a win like that, we’re pretty happy.”
