Greenvale coach Steve Maddocks didn’t say it to his players, but he knew his side would be in for a tough battle chasing down Melbourne’s 267 in Victorian Premier Cricket.
Having collapsed with the bat in the opening round, the Kangaroos were going to have to conjure up something special to pull off the win at Albert Ground.
Special it was, as the Kangaroos chased down Melbourne’s target in the final over.
“Sometimes it’s amazing what can happen,” said Maddocks.
“They did what they needed to do. The top order started well with James Lidgett and Alex Kerr, in his second game for the club, setting it up.
“Then our English imports, Ben Cox and Jack Shantry, applied the finishing touches.”
Earlier, the Kangaroos’ fielding put them behind the eight ball.
“We bowled OK, but our fielding was average,” Maddocks said. “We dropped [Matt] Brown on 15, 25 and 50, and he finished on 148 not out. They were all certainly catchable.
“Usually, when you drop catches you’re made to pay, and it did hurt us.
“Over the two weeks we’ve played a combined full match. We bowled and fielded well in the first game and now we’ve batted well in the second.”
Maddocks said his optimism grew once his side got to about 130.
“I didn’t talk to the boys for the last 20 overs,” he said. “Once we started looking like we were a chance, I followed the silly old cricketers’ theory that you don’t move seats when your team’s playing well.”
For Maddocks, the most impressive thing was the major role played by the youngsters.
“It was them who set the match up,” he said. “James Lidgett [who is 19] played the perfect captain’s innings.
“I tell him when he bats that he’s a batsman, not the captain.
“The way he and Cox put a lot of pressure on the bowlers was really good.”
The coach hopes the win will boost the Kangaroos’ prospects.
“We rarely beat Melbourne at all, let alone get two wins over them in one day, with the fourths also winning,” he said.
“We shouldn’t fear anyone. We’ve played two half games and if we can play well for full matches we will be right in them.”
