Tara Murray
The belief is starting to grow for Plenty Valley in the Victorian Premier Cricket Women’s competition.
After not winning a game last season, the Bats have won six games across the two formats, while have gone close in a couple of others.
Bats head of female cricket Brett Cole said they had more than exceeded their expectations this season.
“The focus in every game was being competitive,” he said. “No one has taken us to the cleaners, which has been fantastic.
“We’re winning games and the twos are winning games and the thirds are close to winning games, it’s been a very positive season.”
Cole said it was the more experienced players that were leading the way for the side, playing major roles.
He said their batting had been their strength, but in their first game after the Christmas break had shown some really good signs in the field.
“The senior group has got together and hopefully will take us through to finals,” Cole said.
“Our international Emma Corney, has been making runs on runs. Nipuni Hansika, who came from Carlton, has been batting well too.
“Jas Nevins is performing as she normally does. Our top five or six are making runs.
“We’re lacking with the fielding and bowling at times, but the fielding and bowling were the best we had done on the weekend.”
The Bats just missed out on finals in the T20 competition, losing two matches they shouldn’t have lost.
They currently sit third in the one-day competition.
Cole said one of the challenges for the side this season was learning how to win after a couple of tough years.
“We’ve been in every game, but we’ve lost games we should have never lost,” he said.
“We lost chasing 251 after being 2-180, we let that one slip.
“The week after we made 288 and lost that. We shouldn’t be losing those games. “We’re getting into positions to win with our experienced players.
“It’s about getting the others to do the job for you and they have most of the season, but they’ve had a couple of lapses.”
With a strong start to the season, the Bats are keen to play finals this season.
Cole said to be discussing playing finals was exciting for the club, but knows every win is vital in a close competition.
“It’s been a very positive season so far, we want to push for finals,” he said. “Finals are very exciting and it’s not just that.
“The twos are winning games and we’ve got young kids coming through.
“The greatest thing about it is there is competition for all three teams. We’ve got some great depth.”
