By Tara Murray
Epping produced its best total since the 2014-15 season but it wasn’t enough for victory in the Diamond Valley Cricket Association’s Barclay Shield.
Having added batting reinforcements during the off-season, Epping’s aim this season is to produce higher totals.
The side did that on Saturday, but Lower Eltham won by 14 runs.
Epping needed 264 for victory on day two of the match and took the game all the way down to the wire.
Skipper Andrew Bennett (86) and recruit Todd Hughes (35) were the keys in the middle of the order.
The tail put on some runs late to get Epping close, but it fell short, all out for 249 in the final over.
Epping coach Hussain Hanif said the club would take a lot of positives out of the game.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen the boys on the paddock,” he said.
“There are a lot of positives. They made 263 and we made 249, that’s the highest total Epping has made in the last few years.
“We went through the numbers at the start of the season and that’s one thing we wanted to improve on.”
Hanif said Hughes, who had come across for Lalor Warriors, and Ali Sheikh, who simply turned up at training one night, were the two main additions to the side this season.
He said Hughes’ experience was expected to really help.
“He adds something in the middle and can bowl good darts as well,” he said.
“He’s an ex-captain and coach and a batsmen who spends time at the crease and other players can bat around him,”
Hanif, who is in his first season of coaching the side, said he was enjoying the challenge.
Hanif, who works for Cricket Victoria, made the move across from the successful Yarraville Club in the Victorian Turf Cricket Association.
“I live in Wollert, so this is my local club,” he said.
“My son has gone to Epping Milo Cricket.
“I want to bring in some small changes and bring a bit more professionalism.
“It will take time to settle in and for the boys to understand how I run things. I want to help out my local club.”
Hanif said at this stage he wasn’t planning on playing, with a knee injury sustained in a car accident ruling him out.
He said the first aim for the side was to be in the top six at Christmas time and to launch their finals push from there.
He said they would need to average more with the bat than they had in recent years to do that.
“They needed a bit more leadership,” he said. “We want to have success and the question is how are we going to get there … by doing the one per-centers.”
In other results, Bundoora defeated Montmorency, Macleod was too good for North Eltham Wanderers, Riverside smashed Plenty and Diamond Creek had a big win against Rosanna.
