Gold Coast batsmen keen to take ownership of Qld Premier Cricket fortunes ahead of Ipswich clash

THE Gold Coast Dolphins’ top six has been challenged to take ownership of the side’s Queensland Premier Cricket fortunes as they put the Jerry Cassell coaching saga behind them.

THE Gold Coast Dolphins’ top six has been challenged to take ownership of the side’s Queensland Premier Cricket fortunes as they put the Jerry Cassell coaching saga behind them.

Despite the sacking of Cassell – appointed head coach in June - in the lead-up to last weekend’s two-day clash with Sandgate-Redcliffe, the Dolphins showed fight to push the 2017-18 grand finalists all the way in a three-wicket loss.

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Making starts again proved an Achilles heel for the visitors, with all but one batsman reaching double figures but wicketkeeper Mitch Daly (50 not out) the only man to reach 50 in a score of 255.

Sandgate-Redcliffe then appeared to be cruising at 3-228, before a dramatic burst from fast bowler Nathan Lyons (4-76) brought the contest to life.

Dolphins wicketkeeper Mitch Daly.

With the Dolphins now sitting eighth with just one win in five two-day outings, captain Max Houlahan said the batsmen needed to deliver in Saturday’s visit to Ipswich-Logan.

“With batting we’re just lacking one (big innings). The other teams have one or two batsmen that go on and get a big hundred and that’s the difference between being a top four team,” said Houlahan, who has four scores between 20 and 34 in eight innings this season.

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“We have spoken about it as a batting group and taking that ownership to go on with it. We showed good fight in patches (last week) and the pleasing sign for me was that even though they were only three or four down we were in the hunt with about 20 to 30 runs to play with.

Sacked Dolphins coach Jerry Cassell. Picture: Scott Fletcher

“There’s a few things we can work on - we dropped a few catches at crucial times, myself included, which didn’t help the cause. It’s pleasing to know we’re putting up a good fight against these teams, and they are genuine top-four teams.”

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Assistant coaches Peter Ford and Nathan Anson have been sharing the off-field workload following Cassell’s departure, but Houlahan said he was unsure whether a fulltime coach would be appointed before the end of the season.

“(Cassell’s axing) has affected people in different ways but there’s nothing we can do about it, we can’t change what’s happened.

Lewin Maladay will play as a specialist batsman against Ipswich. Picture: Mike Batterham

“To be honest, we haven’t really spoken about it too much. (Peter and Nathan) have been making sure everything’s running smoothly.

“We know what we have to do to win games of cricket.”

Returning from injury, regular wicketkeeper Lewin Maladay will play as a specialist batsman against Ipswich at the expense of Howard Biddle.

In the Katherine Raymont Shield, the Dolphins’ women open their T20 campaign at home to Sandgate-Redcliffe and Valleys on Sunday.