Keon Park is hoping that Saturday’s run chase is the start of a turnaround when batting second in the North Metro Cricket Association.
After struggling to chase down totals in the past season in the Jika Shield, and failing to chase down 167 in the past round, Keon Park produced its best batting performance of the season against Darebin Chargers.
Needing 223 for victory, Keon Park made 6-310 off its overs.
Keon Park captain coach Steve Nicholson said, despite having trouble in the past, players had been confident of chasing down the total.
“Last game was disappointing against North Brunswick/Rosebank, that we were chasing 168 and fell short. We have a good bowling attack, and backed them to bowl them out cheaply, to be able to chase down the runs.
“We have to learn how to chase totals, and I was confident we could get the runs.
“I didn’t think we would do it in that fashion.”
The skipper top-scored with 115, but he was quick to praise the batting of Matthew White and Jordan McNamara.
“The good batting was more from Matt; I was struggling to find the middle of the bat.
“Matt is our best batsman and he is coming back into form. One of the young kids, Jordan scored his first A-grade 50.”
The win leaves Keon Park third on the ladder, with three wins.
“We lost to Rivergum in first round and drew against Lalor when we weren’t really in it.
“We’ve had a couple of good wins and, if we had have chased down the 167, we would have set ourselves up.
“With the talent we have, we should play finals. I think we’re not in full flight yet.”
Nicholson knows that his side can’t afford to drop any more games, as they did against North Brunswick/Rosebank.
“You have to try and finish in the top two to be a real threat. It’s really close this year, and there’s five sides fighting for third and fourth … anyone can beat the top two sides when they play their best.”
In other games, Rivergum continues to show it is the team to beat, easily accounting for Olympic Colts. Having made 8-194 on day one, Rivergum bowled the Colts out 97.
Lalor Warriors suffered its first loss of the season, coming against Holy Trinity.
Victory came early on day two, with Trinity needing only seven runs. They got them easily on the way to 8-186. The Warriors shared the wickets around, with no player taking more than two.
