Harper Sercombe
The dam walls may be starting to open for Sunbury in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association division 2 season.
After securing the club’s first win of the season last weekend, Sunbury again finds itself in a winnable position at the end of day one against Newport-Digman.
The Roar bowled the Bulls out for 167 from 66.4 overs, however after electing to bowl, captain-coach Kevin Barker said it could have been better.
Sunbury will resume at 0-12 on Saturday.
“We would have liked to have them at a little bit less than 160 but to have 10 overs to face and be none down for 12 is good,” he said.
“Our batters are disciplined and have the right shot selection and are happy to occupy the crease and hopefully we can get the job done.
“Our batters probably haven’t got the runs they would have wanted to this year, but things like that can be forgotten about if we can get the job done in a game like this which would put us even closer, weirdly, to the top four.
“We weren’t as tight as we would have liked to have been yesterday. We dropped quite a few chances and our fielding wasn’t as good as it has been in the past, but getting that first win under the belt was massive and it would be a much better result if we could make it two in a row and chase these runs down.”
A clear stand out for the Roar yesterday was left-arm orthodox bowler Sohan Boralessa who took 6-70
“He’s a class player,” Barker said. “Obviously he has a lot of first class experience for Sri Lanka. He’s played a lot of high level cricket in Victoria as well.
“So when we were aware that he was available to join the club, we were pretty happy. To be able to lock in basically half the overs from one side is a really handy asset to have and he showed his class yesterday.
“He threatened in most of the overs that he bowled and he could have had more than six, but 6-70 is a really good result and he deserved it.”
Barker said his side is full of confidence and the belief will continue to grow both internally and externally if they can get the job done on Saturday.
“We’ve always felt like we were good enough to match it with all sides in the competition,” he said. “It was just a matter of whether we’re doing the basics right.
“That’ll give us one win defending a total and one win chasing a total. So it would be nice to know that we can win it both ways.
“It’s pretty jam-packed after first place so to be able to finish the season on a bit of a roll and get everyone believing, not just within our club, but outside of the club that we’re a pretty good div two team.
“We just need to make sure that we don’t lose too many wickets to the new ball. Just making sure that we get through the first 10, 15 overs of the day relatively unscathed and then hopefully our batting line up can do the job from there.”
