Victoria Premier Cricket: Geelong batting collapse after strong start
The Cats were on track for a mammoth score against Fitzroy Doncaster, but a series of ‘silly’ wickets cost Geelong in the two-day game.
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GEELONG coach Nick Speak is praying for rain ahead of next week’s second day of the premier cricket side’s clash with Fitzroy Doncaster after posting a “disappointing” score on Saturday.
The Cats were bowled out for 226 on the first day of the two-day game, with Fitzroy Doncaster already 29 runs into its chase.
Speak said his side “threw wickets away”.
“We didn’t set a score to defend, we got bowled out so that’s the total we’ve got, we wanted to set 280 to 300,” he said.
“Almost all of our wickets were silly ways to get out, a couple of guys at the top of the order were caught by the keeper or in gully, but everyone else was caught in front of the wicket.
“We threw away the opportunity to post a score, we were 4-180 just before the tea break, then suddenly we were eight down.
“Hopefully we get a bit of rain this week to keep the wicket pretty similar to what we batted on, they had one less day to prepare it because of the public holiday so it was a little underdone.”
The Cats had the top six batters all score in double figures, with Daanish Mehta top scoring with 49, but Geelong went from 4-186 to 8-195, leaving the tail to wag and crawl to 226.
Geelong did miss the services of Liam Blackford, who is representing Australia against England in two four-day games in Queensland starting on Sunday.
But Speak said Saturday’s performance was not unusual for the Cats this season, who sit in 12th place in the premier grade competition.
“We need someone to stand up in our batting order, we’ve not had a player make 100 yet this year,” he said.
“I know we’ve played mainly one-dayers and it’s harder, but no 100s or no 5-wickets either, so that’s the story of our season a bit.
“We’re two and a half games out of the eight with three games left in the season, so what do you do?
“We need to win every game for a chance to make the eight, so that’s pretty much it from how we’re looking at it.”
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Originally published as Victoria Premier Cricket: Geelong batting collapse after strong start
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