All GCA3 news ahead of Bell Park v St Albans Breakwater, Thomson v Bannockburn finals clashes
St Albans Breakwater coach Vihang Ahlawat believes Bell Park two weeks in a row will have some advantages as the Saints prepare for their qualifying final on Saturday.
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ST Albans Breakwater coach Vihang Ahlawat believes Bell Park two weeks in a row will have some advantages as the Saints prepare for their qualifying final on Saturday.
The Dragons will host St Albans Breakwater after the two sides met in the final round of the home-and-away season, and could play each other three times in four weeks if they meet again in the grand final.
Ahlawat said playing the top side in successive weeks would have its advantages as well as disadvantages.
“It’s an advantage that we know what we’re going to get, their players are pretty secure in their spots, but their plans do change a bit sometimes,” he said.
“They’re a variable team where not everyone bowls each week, not everyone bats in the same position each time, but you know with the quality with the players you’re going to get.
“They are very smart and reliable cricketers, so little things like that is what makes cricket so interesting, you can never put your money where your mouth is and know what’s going to happen.
“The Lymers are incredible players, their captain Jamie Spiller is an amazing cricketer and a great captain, you can put Jake Brown in there as one of the better players in the competition as well.”
Bell Park has only lost one game this season, with a surprise defeat to Manifold Heights, and the Dragons’ success this season has been highlighted by having two of the top four run-scorers in the competition, as well as two of the top seven wicket takers.
Shane Lymer has totalled 566 runs at an average of 56.6 to finish the season second in total runs, while Jarrod Andrews has scored 510 runs at 72.9 this year.
Hayden Jamieson has claimed 24 scalps to sit second in total wickets taken in the competition, while Brown has taken 18 wickets so far this season.
Ahlawat said, as defending premiers, his side deserved flag favouritism, despite Bell Park’s dominant year.
“Everyone’s got their own sort of opinions, the underdog tag comes from outside the club but we don’t see ourselves as that,” he said.
“We’re defending champions, you can’t really class us as underdogs but when you have a full strength side like Bell Park playing well, they’re a good side and we know that.
“We know the strength of their side and what they bring, but we also know our side and how we play and what we bring, so we’re pretty comfortable coming into the game.”
‘Bad days’ over as Thomson readies for finals
THOMSON coach Brett Anderton is hoping the side’s “bad days of cricket” are behind them with an elimination final coming up against Bannockburn.
The Tigers suffered a surprise loss to Manifold Heights in the last round of the season, but have held onto a home elimination final because of Bannockburn’s loss to Alexander Thomson.
Anderton said Thomson had only played “two bad days of cricket” all year, and he had confidence his side could bounce back from the defeat.
“It was frustrating because we couldn’t get on top all day,” he said.
“We can’t let that get to us though, we’ve got to put it behind us because we’ve got more important things to come, so we’ll just put it down as a bad day and move on.
“Looking ahead we’ve got a good team in a final and because of Covid and other things we haven’t really been there for a while, so it’s good to get that chance.
“Our bowling line up is really strong this year, we’ve got some decent depth in our batting as well, so we back ourselves in whatever position.
“Even on Saturday when we were 6-60, we dug in and we ended up batting our overs, even though we only made 140, I think it was a good sign.”
Thomson has had the edge on Bannockburn in the two teams’ match-ups this season, winning at home in round six, but the round 14 match was washed out with Bannockburn 8-130 after 40 overs.
Anderton said he was not leaning on those results ahead of Saturday’s win-or-go-home final,
“We were in a bit of trouble in round six against them, we were three for not many,” he said.
“But (Adam) Bliss and (Will) Bourke put on about 130 runs and carried us over the line, so they’re a good side who had us in a bad spot.
“The game we had a couple of weeks ago was washed out but we had bowled really well and unfortunately we didn’t get a hit.
“We’re just not sure what we’re going to get out of them, looking at their results in the last few weeks they’ve been a bit up and down, so we’ve just got to play the way we play and not worry about them too much.”
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Originally published as All GCA3 news ahead of Bell Park v St Albans Breakwater, Thomson v Bannockburn finals clashes
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