Geelong Cats premier cricket: Tom Neate debuts, Dom McGlinchey stars in big win

Teenager Tom Neate had a premier cricket debut to remember for Geelong, but his star teammate stole the show with a bag of wickets in the bonus point win.

Premier Cricket: Dandenong v Geelong. Geelong bowler Thomas Neate. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Tom Neate made it a debut to remember in Geelong’s Premier Cricket side, claiming a wicket in a bonus point victory against Dandenong.

The teenage fast bowler took the new ball for the Cats and finished with figures of 1-27 off eight overs, but it was his opening partner Dom McGlinchey that stole the show in the first innings with 4-20.

Geelong coach Nick Speak said the pair were a formidable duo with the ball.

“Tom Neate had a great debut with the new ball against the most experienced opening pair in premier cricket in (Brett) Forsyth and (Tom) Donnell,” he said.

Premier Cricket: Dandenong v Geelong. Geelong bowler Thomas Neate. Picture: Valeriu Campan

“He stood up well and bowled some overs in the back end as well, and defended pretty well, so that will give him some confidence moving forward.

“We picked him because we think he’s good enough, but it’s a great combination with Dom there as well, his left arm gives us a good variation up front, while Dom is now an experienced premier cricketer.

“Dom had another good game, he would’ve got all the votes last week for his batting and bowling performance, he’s really running into a bit of form.

“He had a bit of a stop-start year before Christmas … he had a pretty slow start to the year but he’s coming into some form, which is what we need going into the two day games, so I was very happy to see him have another good game.

“There were some great signs there.”

Premier Cricket: Dandenong v Geelong. Geelong players celebrate a wicket. Picture: Valeriu Campan

Josh Garner (2-24 off 8.5 overs) and Hayden Butterworth (2-28 off 10 overs) both bowled well and helped restrict Dandenong to just 156 runs in the first innings, giving Geelong a great opportunity to chase down a win.

Speak said a bonus point victory was in the side’s mind as early as Thursday night’s training session.

“We were talking about it (the bonus point) on Thursday, without getting ahead of ourselves but they haven’t been having a great year,” he said.

“The side they picked was a batting team and only took four main bowlers in, so we were pretty confident that if we could contain them with the ball we would be able to chase them down in 40 overs.”

Originally published as Geelong Cats premier cricket: Tom Neate debuts, Dom McGlinchey stars in big win