Harper Sercombe
The Druids are hoping to bounce back in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association senior division season on Saturday as they will bowl to win against Craigieburn.
The Wizards were sent in to bat on Saturday afternoon and got off to a bad start, losing three key wickets early in the innings.
Things began to turn as Charith Mendis made 59 batting at five, and a strong seventh-wicket partnership between coach Andrew Brennan (56 not out) and Shehriyar Cuttlerywala (29) helped the Druids reach 8-217.
“The pitch was two paced and they won the toss and bowled, so I think 217 is probably around par,” Brennan said.
“We probably would have taken that at the start of the day so it was good. It was also the first time we have batted 80 overs this season and it’s always good to put a score of over 200 on the board.
“The ball was moving around a little bit early, they bowled really well in the first half of the day, and the pitch was a little bit challenging for some of our batters to play on, but thankfully across the day the conditions got a little bit easier to manage.
“Charith Mendis who’s joined the club this season batted really well and got his second consecutive 50 for the club which is awesome.
“Cuttlerywala is one of our younger players and stood up with a quick fire 30 hitting three sixes which was great too.”
This week with ball in hand, Brennan said his side will have to be on their game to take away the points.
“We will definitely need to bowl and field well, we’ve dropped a few catches this season which has cost ourselves a chance to be a bit more competitive,” he said.
“So we need to focus on fielding and doing the team aspects really well and hopefully we’ll be able to be in the game for a long time on Saturday.”
Coming off a disappointing loss to St Albans in the previous round, the Druids will be hoping to use Saturday as a spring board for the rest of their season.
The Druids will also be in action on Sunday in their rescheduled round one clash with Sunshine United.
“In the last couple of seasons, we’ve started off with a couple of losses and ended up being quite competitive across the season, so hopefully we’re able to put in a good performance this Saturday and take it from there,” Brennan said.
In other matches on Saturday, Yarraville Club was bowled out for 241 against St Albans.
Big hitter Trent Lawford top scored with 63 off 58 balls before being run out.
In division 1, Footscray United is 2-21 in reply to Altona North’s 254, while Seddon’s match with St Francis de Sales didn’t go ahead after heavy rain in the lead up the match.
