Victorian Premier Cricket: Swans, St Kilda to square off in qualifying finals

Michael Wallace’s Casey South Melbourne team will take a seven-match winning streak into the Premier Cricket qualifying final. But can the Swans topple the Saints?

Casey South Melbourne skipper Michael Wallace has gone past 700 runs for the season. Picture: Andy Brownbill

Michael Wallace played one match for St Kilda, as a leg-spinner.

It was in Round 1 in 2011-12, a time when he was regarded as an excellent slow-bowling prospect.

His teammates that day included Saints greats Graeme Rummans and Damon Rowan.

As Wallace explains it now, he grew and had trouble landing his leggies.

But he’s made it in Premier Cricket as a batsman, and on Saturday he’ll return to St Kilda to captain Casey South Melbourne in a qualifying final against the Saints.

Wallace, 30, and his team are in rousing form.

The Swannies gained a top-four finish by winning their past seven matches, including Fitzroy-Doncaster at Casey Fields in the final round.

Left-hander Wallace spanked 77 off 61 balls against the Lions to take his aggregate this season to 543 (708 when Super Slam is included).

He’s a good player.

Openers Ashley Chandrasinghe (63) and Luke Manders (54) had a 106-run partnership and young No 4 Harry Kannan was run out for 47 off 54 balls.

CSM raised 5-253 and dismissed the Lions for 225, with left-arm paceman Jackson Fry and leg-spinner Ruwantha Kellepotha both taking three wickets and Nathan Lambden two.

Kellepotha finished on top of the Premier Cricket wicket list with 31 at 15.84.

Lambden was 11th with 24 at 22.71.

Back to Wallace.

“He’s very unassuming,’’ head coach Will Carr said of his skipper.

“Obviously he’s an experienced player, he’s grown into the leadership role beautifully. He’s got the utmost respect from the playing group and the club in general.

“He’s no fuss. He’s not flustered. Very composed. Going into a finals series, you couldn’t ask for a better leader.’’

Nathan Lambden will spearhead the Casey South Melbourne attack. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Carr also played at St Kilda, and he said the Saints, who won 14 of their 16 matches, would be a formidable opponent.

But he’s confident the Swans will do well.

“We’re ready. We’re prepared, we’re in form,’’ he said.

“We’ve got to stick to our plans and our processes. We’re playing well enough that if we do that, we can challenge anyone.

“We don’t know how they (St Kilda) are going to line up. It’s difficult to plan for what they’re going to dish up. We need to worry more about ourselves than them.’’

St Kilda captain Adam Crosthwaite declared on Tuesday that his team would be “hunting’’ the Swans “pretty hard’’.

Carr responded that the Saints “have got more to lose’’.

“They finished on top, they’ve got a lot of contracted players, it’s been a while since they won one (a premiership),’’ he said.

“They’ve probably got more to be nervous about than we do, to be honest.

“We’ll take in 11 players on Saturday who are all in good form.’’

The loser of the qualifying final will back up in a semi-final on Sunday.