Harper Sercombe
A harsh total reduction of overs due to rain didn’t stop Footscray from being victorious on Saturday in its Victorian Premier Cricket clash with Fitzroy Doncaster.
The Duckworth Lewis Stern method was activated in the one-day clash as rain brought a stop to play, causing the Dogs to lose 12 overs in their chase, yet the total needed was only brought down by 27 runs.
Initially the Lions had put up a score of 6-237 off their 50 overs, however with the DLS in play the Dogs were chasing 210 off just 38 overs. While they may have seemed hard done by, the Bulldogs had no issue with the score, chasing it down with seven wickets remaining.
Dogs’ young-gun Dylan Brasher was a clear stand out of the day making a terrific, unbeaten score of 106 as his side finished 3-210. with 10 balls to spare.
“To get the win the way we did in the reduced overs like we did was great,” Bulldogs’ coach Dale McDonald said.
“We got off to a nice start, Aiman Nadeem and Dylan Brasher batted quite well early and then because there had been a little bit of water on the wicket it created a bit of movement during our innings, so we had to work pretty hard early.
“Then our boys got on top of it and Travis [Dean] came in and batted particularly well as he always does and then Dylan took the game away.”
McDonald was ecstatic with Brasher’s performance which comes fresh off the back of his involvement with the Australia test team for the Boxing Day test.
“Dylan’s doing outstanding, it’s not just the skill that’s improved, his all round game has really improved, the things behind the scenes that no one sees,” he said.
“Dylan has come on in leaps and bounds in the last 12 to 18 months. Obviously it’s great for him to get some individual reward but there’s been a lot of hard work that he’s put in that’s got him to where he is at the moment.”
Throughout the season batting has been the Dogs’ one-wood with the club relying on its batting. McDonald said while he embraces it as a strength the side is constantly working on its bowling performances.
“Our batting’s our strength, we have to work really hard with our bowling,” he said.
“Guys like Jay Vine, Arjun Nair and Ben Roosenboom bowled particularly well on the weekend, so that helped keep us in the game a lot. Dylan Brasher even bowled six overs for 21 runs. So our slow bowling stocks did quite well and then with Roosenboom bowling fairly well up front as well.
“With our bowling we have to work really hard each week and hopefully we can put a score on the board that we can either chase down where possible or hopefully defend.”
Footscray will play the winless Greenvale Kangaroos at Greenvale Reserve on Saturday in another one-day clash.
“Greenvale didn’t go particularly well against St Kilda on the weekend but they’re a class outfit,” McDonald said.
“We don’t take any team lightly because anything can happen on the day. The guys will need to play well against Greenvale and do everything right, but we won’t look too far ahead.”
