BARHAM-Koondrook will be aiming to take their first big scalp of the season when they host last year’s grand finalists St. Mary’s-Tyntynder on Saturday afternoon.
With the club celebrating past players’ day, the Raiders will be keen to show how far they’ve come in just their second season since joining the SHDCA, with a two win, one loss start seeing them second on the ladder.
While early signs point to a much-improved season from Barham-Koondrook, Saturday’s match against the Bulldogs will be a much tougher affair than their two-run win over Ultima-TUF last Saturday, with Raiders co-captain Jayden Hall admitting as much to The Guardian this week.
“It’s an important day for our club and we’ll back ourselves in to be competitive in the contest,” Hall said this week.
“The game on the weekend (against Ultima-TUF) was very close and it was a good test for our bowlers to be able to defend 120, however we need to find a way to get more runs on the board and they (St. Mary’s-Tyntynder) have a very strong bowling attack, in particular with (Nathaniel) Holmes-Brown and (Robin) Sebastian.
“For me, they are the key, if we can get through those two and look to score off the other bowlers that will be important to us posting a winning score.
“We know we need to put a few more runs on the board, you won’t win too many games defending 120 like we did last week. Batting out our overs is an important thing that we’ve spoken about over the last couple of weeks also.
“I think we have the ability and we bat quite deep, it’s just a matter of putting it all together on the park, we’re confident, but we know they are one of the benchmark sides too.”
Hall himself is in doubt for the must-win clash with a knee injury, while the visitors will regain the services of their skipper Nathaniel Holmes-Brown in a welcome boost to the Bulldogs bowling attack.
While Saturday’s match is an important one for Barham-Koondrook, it’s equally significant for St. Mary’s-Tyntynder, who need to win to keep themselves in the mix for the Kookaburra Cup one day grand final.
“You really need to make sure you win these early games, especially against the teams who you will be fighting for a position with if you want to make the Kookaburra Cup,” Holmes-Brown said.
“They (Barham-Koondrook) have shown that they are more than competitive this year and have a pretty solid team, and over at Barham it can pose a few problems for us as well, just with the travel and what not.
“We need to make sure we’re ready to go and put our best effort out there to get the win, because these are the games you need to win if you want to play off for higher honours later in the season.”
With the Bulldogs coming off the bye and off the back of a dominant last start win over Wandella, the visitors should be full of confidence, with St. Mary’s-Tyntynder also winning all three games against the Raiders last season.
With Holmes-Brown back to strengthen their bowling attack, it’s with the bat where the Bulldogs will be keen to perform, with Riley Daniels starting the season in form and Jake Foster, Connor Power, Ayden Symons and Austin McKerrow all getting starts against the Bombers.
Although Holmes-Brown acknowledged that the Lolicato brothers will be the batters they will be most keen to dismiss, Hall was hoping for big performances from another couple of his top order hitters.
“Lachie Laursen looked like he was well on the way last week before he top edged one and if he’s out there for even 10 overs, he’s going to put a big score on the board with the way he goes about it,” Hall said.
“He’s the one that we’re hoping to see something special from and Caleb Davidson’s another one.
“The last two weeks he’s started to show what he can do, he just needs to work hard once he gets set in his innings and he’ll put a big score on the board pretty soon.”
