Much to the delight of his teammates at Yarraville, star batsman Matthew Love has regained his spark in sub-district cricket after a campaign last summer he describes as a “glitch in the system”.
Love has pummelled the bowlers this season, scoring 410 runs in all forms at an average of 68, including centuries against Bayswater and Taylors Lakes.
In total contrast to his 2014-15 season, when he managed just 211 runs at 16, Love has already posted 324 runs at 54 just five games into the new season.
After self doubts crept in last season, Love believes he is winning the battle above the shoulders.
“Confidence in sport is a huge thing,” he said. “Once you get in and settled down in an innings and manage to get a big score, you just feel confidence from that.
“Thinking back on some of the dismissals last season, I wasn’t able to keep out some of the good balls, then you get yourself into a bit of a rut and question your own ability.
“If your confidence is down, it can be detrimental to your game, and vice versa, if your confidence is up, a lot of luck and things go your way.”
Yarraville is in the midst of a crucial east-west division two-day encounter with Box Hill at the Box Hill City Oval.
The Eagles have just one win from five games and need to pick up the pace if they are to make a finals push. Box Hill is in a similar predicament.
Yarraville posted a defendable 200 off 79 overs.
In-form No.3 batsman Matthew Harrison provided the backbone of the innings with 44.
While the Eagles don’t have the premiership points they wanted at this stage of the season, they are far from dispirited.
Had a bit of luck gone their way, the Eagles may have been perched in the top six, not on the outside looking in.
“Like [captain] Nathan Allen has said, we’ve been thereabouts and playing good cricket and we’re trending upwards,” Love said.
“If we had’ve got over the line on one or two of those occasions, which we probably should’ve in the positions that we got to, we could be sitting with at least three wins.
“But that’s the way it goes. We’ve got to keep our focus fairly narrow now.
“We’ll keep doing the basics really well and results will come, both individually and on the scoreboard.”
Box Hill will begin its run chase at 1pm on Saturday.
Elsewhere, Williamstown has breezed to first-innings points on the road against Endeavour Hills and will now set its sights on an outright.
The Seagulls cruised past the home side’s total of 128 to go to stumps on 1-175 and with a lead of 47.
Seagulls captain Dale McDonald (75no) and playing assistant coach Brent McMinn (94no) have put on an unbeaten 175-run partnership.
Altona took the honours on day one against Bayswater after a remarkable eight-wicket haul to Shannon Clarke.
Clarke finished with 8-60 off 21 as Bayswater was all out for 194. The A’s are 1-32 in reply, with Greg Sheehan (15no) and Aaron Maynard (7no) at the crease.
