BPCA: Jan Juc chasing outright win against St Leonard’s

Jan Juc coach Nick Hyden has stressed the importance of claiming an outright victory on Saturday after his side’s dominant performance with the ball at the weekend.

Cricket BPCA A1: Jan Juc v Barrabool at jan Juc. Jan Juc. batsman Nick Hyden Picture: Mark Wilson

Jan Juc coach Nick Hyden has stressed the importance of claiming an outright victory on Saturday after his side’s dominant performance with the ball at the weekend.

The premiership contenders dismissed St Leonard’s for just 50 runs on the first day, before declaring 13 runs ahead and sending the opposition back in.

Hyden said outright wins, worth 10 points instead of six, were “extremely valuable” but difficult to get.

“Even if you do win on the first day, outrights are not easy to win,” he said.

Cricket BPCA A1: Jan Juc v Barrabool at jan Juc.Jan Juc. batsman Nick HydenPicture: Mark Wilson

“We’ve got to get eight or nine more wickets and keep them to not too many, but it’ll be interesting to see how they play it, I’m not too sure what their game style will be.

“They won’t want to lose outright, we obviously want to win outright so it’ll be an interesting second day.

“Outrights are like gold, if you can get 10 points they give you such an advantage, a lot of the other games this round will be single wins, so any points you can get ahead is really important and needs to be taken advantage of.

“There’s already been washouts, there’s bound to be more so by taking advantage now and getting the points on the board is a really important process for us.

“Things might pop up later in the year which hinder our chances of getting a win, so if we can bank the points now it’ll definitely help us later in the season.”

Tom Kearney was the bowler of the day, taking 5-1 off less than four overs in a dominant display of spin.

Hyden said his wickets were a testament to not just his consistent bowling, but the entire unit’s performance on Saturday.

“For a spinner Tom is super consistent, he just hits the same spot every time,” he said.

BPCA A1: Jan Juc v Queenscliff. Jordan Graham bowling for Jan Juc.

“He’s got a few subtle changes of pace and the one run that he did go for was a dropped catch, so he could’ve been 5-0.

“Tom is really consistent, but that’s the strength of all our bowlers, you have to be consistent in this competition if you want to be competitive.

“Nick Smith is one of the premier bowlers in the competition, so to have him back opening with Jordan (Graham), we had eight or nine maidens in the first 20 overs or so, which was really pleasing considering we haven’t had much training over the past few weeks.

“Even with the two-day games, teams still want to score relatively quickly, especially with the best part of two years with just one-day cricket it’s going to take teams some time to adjust to the fact you’ve got more time.

“Every batsman is the same, they want to score runs but our bowling made it tricky and frustrating for them.”

Originally published as BPCA: Jan Juc chasing outright win against St Leonard’s