Footscray Edgewater is no one-trick pony in Victorian Premier Cricket.
The Bulldogs had many and varied contributors in Sunday’s 70-run one-day win over Casey-South Melbourne at Casey Fields.
They needed the depth, with captain Dean Russ and wicketkeeper Dylan Kight on state second XI duty and opening batsman Wes Robinson having returned home to Western Australia earlier in the week.
“We had a couple of late changes, which made the win a bit better,” Bulldogs assistant coach Duncan Harrison said.
“We probably lost two of our better batsmen, so it threw our batting order out a bit. The boys were terrific to post a good total, and to knock them over for about 100 was outstanding.”
The Bulldogs were bowled out for 174 in 47.1 overs. Leading scorers were caretaker captain Travis Dean (41) and young rising star Guy Walker (35).
Michael Hill (20) and Jake Haberfield (23) provided handy runs in the middle order.
Dean was the mainstay of the innings.
“It was a really good effort from him to lead from the front and take on the responsibility of holding the innings together as the stand-in captain,” Harrison said.
Casey-South Melbourne hardly got a look-in, with the Swans bowled out for 104 in 31.2 overs.
For the Bulldogs, four bowlers took multiple wickets: Haberfield (2-15), Michael Kelly (2-28), Sunam Gautam (2-19) and Lucas Dredge (3-6).
“There’s a lot of variety and a lot of depth in our bowling,” Harrison said.
“That’s the strength of it – when one guys doesn’t get them, hopefully another guy does.
“It’s good that they’re all taking their turn. It’s not one bloke getting a heap of wickets every week.”
The Bulldogs are 3-1 for the season and third on the ladder.
Their only blemish came in part one of the weekend’s double-header, an 18-run loss to Richmond.
The Bulldogs, boosted by the return of Russ and Kight, will round out their five-game block of one-dayers to start the season against Essendon at the Merv Hughes Oval on Saturday.
