Harper Sercombe
While the Greenvale Kangaroos remain without a win in the Victorian Premier Cricket season, they are continuing to build.
The Kangaroos played in a T20 double header on Saturday at Windy Hill against both Essendon and Carlton, losing in both clashes.
The first game was against hosts Essendon, where the Kangaroos fell 35 runs short of the total set for them making 7-133 chasing 4-168.
Batting at three Damith Perera top scored with 37 after both openers were dismissed without troubling the scorers.
In the match against Carlton, the Kangaroos were tasked with setting the total, however could only manage to make 106 from their 20 overs, this time with opening batsman and skipper Justin Galeotti top-scoring with 45.
Carlton was able to chase the score with ease making 4-108 from just 14.4 overs.
“In the Essendon game, the guys started pretty well in terms of bowling and fielding and then as what happens in T20 cricket it can change really quickly,” said Kangaroos’ coaching director Ash Cavigan.
“Both teams we played yesterday have some really good individual talent, and much more experience than us too.
“It’s been a consistent theme with us, there’s parts of the game that we get right and we show some good signs but then it doesn’t take much for the game to be taken away particularly in T20 cricket.
“We know we need 11 contributors every game and we need to get that with bat, ball, field. That’s what we’re searching for at the moment and we need that even spread of contribution from a lot of players and hopefully that’s not too far away and then I’m sure once we get it once, twice, three times then that evidence is there for them.”
Now with the Christmas and New Year break upon the competition, it comes at a good time for the youthful Kangaroos outfit Cavigan said.
“It’ll be here and gone really quick,” he said.
“We’ve just got to stick together, keep hanging in there and then hopefully we get that game where we do put it all together then we do that again and then things will start to be a bit more consistent.
“We’re virtually straight back into it after the New Year so it’ll feel pretty quick for everyone. So it’s a good opportunity to look at how we set up for the back half of the year with our group and what we do with some individuals now that we’ve seen them play a little bit and we’ve been training together for a while.
“Where we came from sort of putting a list of players together who were all pretty brand new, I think 35 players played their first game for the club in round one. We had nine debutants in the first XI, so we’ll get to the break and at least we’ve seen a whole lot more of the guys and we all know each other a little bit better, so we can hopefully settle some guys into some positions and help them develop their game.”
