Tara Murray
Fine tuning before finals is the aim for Romsey in the last two rounds of the Gisborne and District Cricket Association McIntyre Cup.
Having moved into top spot last round, the Redbacks are entering the pointy end of the season exactly where they want to be.
Redbacks captain-coach Ben Way said they were happy with how things were tracking, having not lost a game this season.
“We’re now up to first with the big win and extra bonus points,” he said. “We want to get through this week, but we’re feeling good where we are.
“We want to make sure that we’re playing good cricket the next couple of weeks and want to keep building going into finals.
“We want as many people in form as possible coming into finals. One or two players won’t win it for you.
“It doesn’t matter who makes and runs and who takes the wickets.”
The reigning premiers are on track for another victory in this round, after a strong day against third-placed Sunbury United.
The Bees were bowled out for 191 in the 73rd over with Fabian Fernando top scored with 56.
Taylor Stevenson took three wickets for the Redbacks and Jamie Taylor took two.
Way was happy with that total having said they would have batted too, had they won the toss.
“We had a good day at the office,” he said. “We started off really slowly and we kept the pressure on them.
“We bowled 45 overs before tea and kept the pressure on them and took two quick wickets before tea.
“We felt like we started to get on top and we were able to get them out. To keep them to 190 was a really good effort and we were able to finish the day off well.”
The Redbacks faced eight overs at the end of the day.
They will resume at 0-6 with Matthew Milne and Jed Richardson the unbeaten batters.
Way said getting through that tough period without losing a wicket was exactly what they had wanted.
“You don’t want to lose wickets late in the day,” he said. “There’s two ways of looking at it, you can go for it and get 30 or 40 runs, or make sure you’re none down.
“We only got six runs, but we’re no wickets down.”
In other matches, Rupertswood made 216 against Diggers Rest Bulla, Gisborne piled on the runs making 342 against the Sunbury Kangaroos and Macedon is 2-19 in reply to Woodend’s 293.
