Premier Cricket 2020-21: Jackson Coleman delivers in Footscray’s win

After struggling to take wickets this season, Jackson Coleman could be the man to fire Footscray into Premier Cricket finals.

Footscray star Jackson Coleman bends his back for Victoria. Picture: AAP

Jackson Coleman could be the star spearhead Footscray has been craving.

With Jake Reed also absent as he recovers from a knee reconstruction, the Dogs have struggled to take wickets with the new ball this season and sit in 10th position on the Premier Cricket ladder with a 4-4 win-loss record.

Coleman returned from a hamstring injury in Tuesday’s tense victory over Kingston Hawthorn, returning 3-37 from nine productive overs in his maiden appearance for Footscray.

The left-arm quick, who was a member of Melbourne Stars’ Big Bash League squad this season and represented Victoria 20 times, arrived at Merv Hughes Oval from Melbourne last off-season in a recruiting coup.

Welcome Jackson Coleman first game for the club today. Get down to Merv Hughes Oval today. First ball at 11.35am

Posted by Footscray Cricket Club on Monday, January 25, 2021

“He kills games, he’s really hard to score off, so that takes a lot of pressure off Jordy Buckingham and a (Ben) Rosenboom,” coach Allan Wise said.

“He will certainly help blend our attack together.

“He’s still working his way back to his best, but it was really good to have him as part of our attack.

“He complements our existing bowlers and is going to be a fabulous addition for us.”

The Dogs made two changes to their pace attack against Kingston Hawthorn, replacing the experienced Hamish Winter-Irving and teenager Max Birthisel with Coleman and Rosenboom.

Rosenboom grabbed 4-26 and Buckingham 2-24 as the Hawks posted 9-166 from 44 overs in a rain-shortened fixture.

The visitors were languishing at 6-44 before Nivin Sathyajith (59 not out) and Joel Lewis (54) combined for a 109-run stand for the seventh wicket to add respectability to the scorecard.

“He’s been biding his time and plying his trade for a few years in the seconds and been given a couple of opportunities at First XI level and performed admirably,” Wise said of Rosenboom, who played his first game in the top side since Round 1.

“He’s got a knack of picking up a couple of wickets and he was able to do that again.”

Footscray reached 9-166 with one ball remaining in a thriller, declared the winner under the Duckworth-Lewis system.

Dan Sartori top-scored with 36 at No.4, while last-wicket pair Buckingham (8 not out) and Rosenboom (5 not out) put on 10 runs to secure victory.

Dan Sartori top-scored for the Dogs. Picture: Mark Dadswell

“We had them 6-40 and we were right in control, had a superb first hour of the game and probably from that point on we were outplayed,” Wise said.

“They got a really good partnership together and bowled really well on that wicket, which seemed to suit their bowlers. We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole on that wicket.

“We needed the win to stay alive and it was more relief than joy at the end of the game.

“We learned a lot and it’s good to get the lesson and the four points I think.”

Wise said his side’s start to the season had been “patchy” but insisted there was “plenty of upside”.

“It’s a gruelling season and one-dayers condenses everything if you have a poor patch of cricket and lose a game. In two-dayers you can potentially recover,” he said.

“We’re in that batch where we’ve kept our season alive and are right in the hunt for the top eight, but internally we’ve been a little bit patchy and probably fallen 20-30 runs short at times with the bat and haven’t accelerated at other times.

“We also haven’t been able to do take new-ball wickets when we needed to.

“It’s just a combination of those things … it hasn’t all clicked in the one game, but there’s been signs in all of those areas.”

Footscray will face fifth-placed Melbourne away from home on Saturday.