Geelong premier cricket: Emilio Gay scores maiden century for the club against Richmond

Mid-season recruit Emilio Gay notched his first ton for Geelong, with the score of 120 also the Cats’ first century this season.

Premier Cricket Geelong v St Kilda at Geelong Cricket Ground. Geelong Batsman Emilio Gay made 50 Picture: Mark Wilson

GEELONG coach Nick Speak conceded his side was “about 20 or 30 runs short” of a truly competitive total against Richmond, despite a maiden century to mid-season recruit Emilio Gay.

Gay starred at the top of the order, piling on 120 runs to help Geelong set 219 runs on the first day of the two-day match against Richmond.

Speak said Gay was faultless in his innings, but the rest of the batters struggled on a batting wicket.

“I feel like I’m always complaining about our batting performance, looking at the wicket before the game we were wanting 250 to 260,” he said.

“We were 3-176 when Emilio went out and we were well ahead of the game then, so we felt we were about 20 or 30 runs short of where we should’ve ended up.

Emilio Gay made his first century for Geelong against Richmond on Saturday. Picture: Mark Wilson

“The wicket was a bit slow and one dimensional, so it wasn’t as easy to bat on as I thought, but I wish he (Gay) made a few more.

“He was completely chanceless.”

Geelong had three overs to bowl at Richmond before the end of the day’s play, but the Cats were not able to break through for a wicket and Richmond will enter the second day on 0-10.

Speak said Richmond’s star Jake Fraser-McGurk was going to be the most important wicket next week.

“You can’t have many plans on the wicket when it’s slow, you can’t bounce him out of it,” he said.

“So we’re going to have to bowl well, pick a good line and bowl just short of a length and make them make a mistake.

“Jake is obviously a good player, but he can be pretty impatient so it’s important to bowl consistently at him.

“The pitch should spin as well, we’ve gone into the game pretty bowler heavy and so did Richmond, so hopefully we have options to defend our score.”

 

Originally published as Geelong premier cricket: Emilio Gay scores maiden century for the club against Richmond