Tara Murray
Sunshine United continues to push the top teams without getting the rewards in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division.
The Tigers sit in seventh spot with two wins for the season, but haven’t been able to quite pull off wins in games they were well and truly in.
Tigers coach Michael Glowacki said they weren’t far away from turning some of those results into win,
“It has been a bit tough the last four games, but we still have a few games ahead of us,” he said.
“There’s still a few teams we have not played. We’ve played Deer Park and Yarraville Club twice so it makes it a bit harder.
“We’re never out of games and even the two games that we’ve won, we’ve had to come back from tough positions.
“We’ve been in every game and it’s one thing I keep reiterating to the boys that there’s been opportunities in every game.”
On Saturday, the Tigers had their work cut out for them on day two of their clash with Deer Park.
The Tigers had made 200 on day one, bowled out with more than seven overs left in their innings.
Glowacki said they always knew that would struggle to be enough against a strong Deer Park batting line up.
The Lions started well with the bat and put on 50 before losing their first wicket. At 4-99, the Tigers had a small sniff, but the Lions had plenty of batting power still in the shed.
The Tigers hit the winning runs in the 49th over, finishing 6-202.
James Leach top scored with 49 not out.
“We lost some late wickets on day one,” Glowacki said. “We could have made 260 and the way the game was played, it would have put us in the hunt.
“We were in a favourable position at one stage. But 200 wasn’t enough to win the game.”
Hamza Ali took three wickets for the Tigers.
Glowacki said they still had the opportunity to turn their season around in the last few games. While sitting eighth, they sit 12 points behind third placed Aberfeldie after eight rounds.
“There are good opportunities,” he said. “We’re in the bottom three, so we’re not hard nosing up against anyone.
“We’re going to be giving it 100 per cent and we know if we can pull something off and amazingly win four in a row, we keep our hopes of playing finals alive.”
Glowacki said elsewhere in the club, they had been able to promote a few more juniors into their second XI to give them some more experience.
“We’re not getting the results yet, but some of the kids are 16-17. We’re pushing forward future stars, so that’s really positive.”
In other senior division matches, St Albans was way too strong for Keilor.
Keilor was bowled out for 125 on day one of the match, with Saints making 236 in reply.
Ashen Abeykoon top scored with 85.
Sydenham Hillside’s finals hopes received a massive boost with an outright win against Craigieburn.
Having already claimed first innings points on day one, the Storm was able to bowled the Eagles out for 144 on day two.
It needed just 8 overs to get the runs needed for the full 10 points, finishing 2-45.
