KEALBA Green Gully is into its second consecutive George Luscombe Shield grand final after successfully chasing down Buckley Park’s 171 on Sunday at Green Gully Reserve.
The Cougars reached their target with four wickets in hand, pleasing captain-coach Andrew Lambropoulos.
“We were fantastic,” Lambropoulos said.
“I thought we were mentally switched on, we were committed to our game plan for two days and to be honest, we haven’t been like that for a few weeks, so it was very pleasing.”
On Saturday it was Danny Viani doing all the damage with the ball, claiming 4/31 and four maidens from his 16 overs in the summer heat.
On Sunday it was Evan Long who took charge with the bat, belting his way to a half-century that helped secure Kealba’s place in the decider.
However Lambropoulos was keen to spread credit among his entire group for their efforts with the willow.
“Everyone chipped in. We had two night-watchmen to start with last night to face two overs,” he explained.
“They both batted extremely well and put 49 on for the first wicket, so that was important and from then on everyone just chipped in.
“Obviously the big innings was Evan Long who batted all the way through and held the innings together. He was really the rock of the innings and he was just fantastic.”
Lambropoulos feels the chemistry has come together at the right end of the summer, and noted the improvement shown on the weekend, particularly in the field.
“We worked on our fielding during the week and in the last couple of weeks and we’ve put in some really poor performances leading up to the finals,” he said.
“I found that our fielding was something we needed to work on and we worked hard on it and yesterday (Saturday) we were absolutely brilliant against really good batting opposition.”
Lambropoulos still feels his Cougars have a point to prove after talk of last season’s premiership being nothing more than a fluke.
Though he already feels vindicated by his side’s efforts this summer, he admitted it is pleasing to be taking part in the big one once more.
“It is very pleasing just to prove to everyone that it wasn’t a fluke the first time,” he said.
“I want to prove to people that we’re in for a dynasty, not just for a one-off.”
