By Tara Murray
Greenvale Kangaroos put in one of their strongest performances with the bat this season, to be on top after day one against Frankston Peninsula in Victorian Premier Cricket.
Winless in this format, the Kangaroos have been on the improve in recent weeks and it showed on the scorecard on Saturday.
The Kangaroos made 7-305 declaring with one over remaining in their innings.
Kangaroos captain-coach Matthew Love was thrilled with the outcome.
“It’s really good for us to get a score over 300 and have the chance to declare,” he said.
“We got into that position with patience during the first half of the day when the pitch had something in it.
“We were able to accelerate in the end. We were looking at 280, to get 300 was brilliant.”
Anthony Barton was the star of the show, making 118. Barton started the season opening the batting but has moved into the middle order the past couple of games.
Love said they wanted Barton’s experience in the middle with a number of younger players in the team.
Having declared, the Kangaroos had the chance to bowl four overs at Frankston Peninsula.
Frankston Peninsula got through unscathed and will resume at 0-7.
Love said they were hopeful of getting the wickets needed and opening their account in Premier Cricket.
“We’ve got the runs on the board, which is always good,” he said.
“We’ve got a good mix of spin and pace and the bowlers just need to nag away at a good line and length.”
Love said the club as a whole has started to show improvement the past couple of weeks.
A couple of the lower grades have wins on the board, while there has been some good individual performances.
Zaheer Hussain scored his first century for the club in the second XI on Saturday.
On the first XI side, they’ve enjoyed more competitive performances in premier cricket, while they have been in the mix in the Vic Slam T20 competition, winning one match so far.
The Kangaroos will play all their matches in that competition before Christmas.
“We’re consistently scored 120 plus in every game,” Love said of the T20s.
“We have not been that far away from getting another win.”
The Kangaroos play Carlton on Tuesday night in the next round of the T20 competition.
