Tara Murray
There’s been no second season blues for Burnside Springs United in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association Russell Pollock Shield.
Having joined the VTCA last season late in the piece when a vacancy arose last season, it was a learning curve for the club.
Now having played in the competition for a season, Burnside is continuing to make inroads on the competition.
On Saturday, Burnside continued its good form, defeating fellow finals contender Sunshine.
Last week, the YCW’s were bowled out for 175 with one over remaining. Amitoj Kang top scored for the YCW’s with 66.
Joshua Kelly, Oscar Hodgetts and Shohan Rangika took two wickets each for Burnside.
“One of our recruits Shoan took two wickets and is starting to work into it a bit more now and giving a bit with the ball,” secretary James Highgate said before day two.
“Josh and Oscar are two of our younger kids that have come through the junior ranks and stepped up.”
On Saturday, Burnside were strong in the chase, reaching 7-178 from 76 overs. Radhakrishnan Venkata Subramanian top scored for the club with 69.
Burnside sits in fourth spot after seven after eight rounds. Just eight points separates second and seventh.
Now, maintaining the top four spot is the goal for the club. Speaking before the game Highgate said it was something that they had spoken about this within the club.
“It definitely is,” he said about playing finals. “It has been spoken about, but we are taking it each week at a time.
“We first want to get the runs this week.”
Highgate said they had been happy with how the season had gone so far.
“There has been massive improvement on last year,” he said. “Our coach Cass [Elorza] went out and recruited what he wanted.
“We’ve been able to land those players and it has helped with the improvement. We’re happy with where we’re sitting.”
Highgate said last season was like a free hit for them as they juggled the changes of the new competition.
The club though is still without a turf wicket at their home ground, which they are hoping will be ready for next season. It means the sides are spending another season on the road.
“We were hoping to see some improvement this year and we’ve seen a lot of that,” Highgate said.
“We’ve seen some more consistent results. We’re still playing a lot of home grown players in that side.”
Highgate said their second XI is also in a good position to play finals. He said it would be a massive confidence boost for the club if they were to get a couple of sides into finals this season.
“It gets us a bit more experience.”
On the weekend, the first XI is set to travel to Bruce Comben Reserve to take on Seabrook.
Seabrook sits just one point above Burnside in third position, which sets up a huge clash for both clubs.
