Tara Murray
St Albans is hoping its bowling will be a point of difference come the back part of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association’s senior division.
The Saints sit percentage outside the top four after seven rounds, having yet to hit their straps.
In a batting dominant competition, Saints coach Shafraz Mohamed is hoping their bowling attack will be the difference come the pointy end of the season.
“We have seven really good bowlers,” Mohamed said. “We probably have one too many all-rounders, but still have a really good line up.
“We want to use our bowling to our advantage to restrict a lot of clubs. We were able to do that to Yarraville Club.
“We back our bowlers and think we have the best attack in the competition.”
Mohamed, who joined the club this season, said they always knew it was going to take some time to gel this season with four new players coming in.
He said the group was really tight and while they hadn’t hit their straps, he was hoping that it wasn’t that far away.
‘I think we are going alright,” he said. “We missed out on an outright by four runs in the first game against Craigieburn and the game before the Christmas break, we should have won that game but lost by seven runs.
“It’s cost us heading into the Christmas break. We should be sitting in second if everything went our way.”
Mohamed said they took a step in the right direction on Saturday, in the first game after the Christmas break.
Facing Craigieburn, the Saints decided to bowl first and were able to restrict the Eagles to 8-143.
Ashen Abeykoon took 5-31 for the Saints to be the pick of the bowlers.
The Saints managed to get the runs with nearly 10 overs remaining, finishing 4-144.
Mohamed said how the run chase played out was the most pleasing thing.
“The best thing was that our top order didn’t fire,” he said. “Our middle order had to step up and Shanaka Silva and Ashan Abeykoon put on 100 for the fourth wicket to win the game.
“It hasn’t been the case this season so far. Nils Priestley has been the best batsmen in the competition by a mile, it’s been a massive plus for us that he didn’t fire and others did.”
The Saints this week face Keilor.
