Altona’s Gordon Macfarlane was a handy contributor with the ball on Saturday. 58558
BY MICHAEL ESPOSITO
ALTONA head coach Mark McAllion said all-rounder Aaron Maynard would need to step up with the big loss of leg-spinner Matthew Boglis, and he certainly showed he was up to the task on the opening day of the Victorian Sub-District Cricket season on Saturday.
Maynard helped make Altona’s paltry batting total of 87 competitive with a disciplined spell that reaped two wickets for just six runs from seven overs.
The evergreen Gordon Macfarlane also chipped in with two important wickets, as did Tim Collins, to have Coburg at 7/59 after the first day.
Despite some major losses, including Boglis, Christian Hewitt, Paul Murray and Liam Keating, McAllion was confident his side could cover them,
“Boglis was a very good player who took a lot of wickets, but we think we can cover it, probably not with one person, but just across the board. We’ve got a couple of all-rounders in the first team that will be able to step up and bowl a few more overs,” McAllion said.
“A couple of kids that have shown potential are now bigger and stronger and we’re hoping they have good seasons, so we think we’re in pretty good shape.”
Of last year’s second XI premiership side, Ben Davies and Jamie Harvey played for the first XI on Sunday. Harvey, who played three first XI games last year, is yet to make a breakthrough score in the ones and was dismissed LBW for four. Davies was dismissed for eight.
Macfarlane top-scored with 36 runs, while Lee Elmore made 20.
Rohan Crowle, an opening fast bowler recruited from Williamstown Congs, was not given the ball on Saturday but could be used to finish off the tail this Saturday. McAllion said Crowle has had an outstanding pre-season and is set to fire.
McAllion said Pakistan-born recruit Anwar Ali was not far away from making his first XI debut, while negotiations are in place to recruit a Sri Lankan cricketer, but it has not been confirmed.
McAllion is hoping the merciful weather was a good omen for the rest of the season, which is not expected to be as rain-interrupted as last season.
“Because of the rain interruption we had mostly one-day games last year, that probably didn’t suit the way we play,” he said. We’re probably a better two-day team. I think that will probably make a difference.”
“We’ve just worked on playing smart cricket. We think we’ve got the talent in the team to do really well, it’s just a matter of consistently doing the right things.”
