By Michael Esposito
SUNSHINE finally got to play some cricket in what was its first game in the 2010-11 Victorian sub-district cricket season on Saturday, and looked very much like a team blowing off the cobwebs in its six-wicket loss to Endeavour Hills.
Endeavour Hills no doubt would have benefited from defying the previous weekend’s poor weather and having a hit-out against Werribee.
Sunshine started strongly and was moving the batting along at a serious pace. The home side was 2/58 off 12 overs, having been aided by some ill-directed bowling.
The main problem for Sunshine was that no batsmen went on with the job. Opener Matt Stone managed 18 runs but he was Sunshine’s top scorer.
Club coach Andrew Webb said no performance stood out.
“Everyone probably had glimpses that they are heading in the right direction, but they probably didn’t sustain that for long enough to be able to put the pressure on the other team,” he said.
“We’ve got to stop relying on a certain few people to bowl well and bat well every week.
“In the first game you hope to play as well as you can, but it definitely looked like a first game for us, we were rusty in spots, in bowling batting and fielding.”
Sunshine was in an unenviable position at 8/89 but tailenders Webb and Sanjeev Choudhary scored 24 runs between them to lift the total to a modest 117.
Despite the slow outfield, Webb said he was disappointed with the score.
He attributed the middle-order breakdown to some fine bowling from Endavour Hills’ first and second-change bowlers, who troubled Sunshine’s batsmen with their swing.
“They put the pressure back on us,” Webb said. “We lost four wickets in that time and dried up the runs.
“We didn’t play too many bad shots, but we did not have enough batting time in the middle to defend the good balls. I’d put it down to their good bowling, not so much loose shots,” he said.
Endeavour Hills bowler Matthew Aslett got the important wicket of captain Troy Stone (14) and took three more wickets to swing the momentum in his side’s favour.
The away side surpassed Sunshine’s total in the 35th over.
“With our bowling, they got off to a good start. We dropped a few catches that we should have taken. There were a couple of run-out opportunities as well,” Webb said.
The coach identified his side’s lack of a specialist swing bowler as a significant void that needed to be filled.
“What they had were swing bowlers and we don’t really have a key swing bowler at the moment,” he said. “I think that’s the thing we missed.”
Webb said he was looking for someone capable of moving the ball to emerge from Werribee’s bowler-heavy second XI side.
Werribee will welcome back all-rounder Shane Jones for its Twenty20 match tonight and its two-dayer against Mount Waverley this weekend.
“He’s the kind of player who always puts himself in the right position for a run-out, and a run-out, in my mind, can turn a game,” Webb said.
