By Tara Murray
Taylors Lakes finally got the performance it had been hoping for, but it’s too little too late in the race for Victorian Sub-District Cricket Association south-west finals.
The Lions had been one of the standout teams heading into the second half of the season, but haven’t had a win since Christmas.
It was a much better day on Saturday against Moorabbin in the penultimate round.
Lions coach Peter Brasher said they’d had a good conversation during the week and it showed through across all the grades.
“It felt like December again,” he said. “To be fair we are playing the second bottom team that hasn’t performed that well.
“I wasn’t sure what to expect and it was a pleasant surprise. It’s been a learning experience the last few weeks.
“We got them all together in their teams on Thursday and talked about a few things and what we still needed to do.
“Each side did what we asked them to do.”
Brasher said it had been hard with the first two losses after Christmas just falling short despite playing well.
It’s only been the past few weeks they had slipped away a bit.
The Lions still had a small mathematical chance of making finals heading into the weekend, but needed everything to go their way.
With Caulfield claiming first innings points on day one, that ended that hope.
While it doesn’t matter in the scheme of the ladder now, the Lions needed an outright win against Moorabbin.
After day one they are on the right track.
Moorabbin decided to bat and was bowled out for just 99.
George Sakkas, Saihaj Jaspal and Dhanushka Lahiru Kumara took two wickets each for the Lions.
Brasher said it was a real team bowling performance.
“We bowled pretty well,” he said. “All the bowlers played their part and not one in particular stood out.”
It wasn’t an ideal start with the bat for the Lions losing three quick wickets.
They recovered and will resume at 3-79.
Brasher said it was really good to see 16-year-old Jaideep Singh open the batting in his first XI.
“He’s been a junior at the club and captained our Craig Shield side a few years ago.
“He’s starting to come into his own.”
Brasher said while they know they won’t play finals, they still want to end the season on a high.
“We will look to really put the pressure on,” he said. “We don’t just want to pass the score, we want to put on a really good performance.”
The Lions thirds and fourth will play finals. Brasher said overall it was a relatively successful season.
