By JARROD POTTER
WOW.
Is there any other word to describe this end to the WGCA Sub-District season? Cardinia jumped from fifth to minor premiers in the blink of an eye with a huge outright over Lang Lang.
Cardinia booked a home final – coming from nowhere after round nine to sweep all aside and advance with a 20-point triumph on the last day.
Lang Lang (62 and 60) tried to block its way out of trouble against Cardinia (5/257), but eventually the defences began to fall.
Declaring overnight, Cardinia had to slog to pick up the last handful of wickets as the Swamp Tigers dug in. With only a few wickets down at tea, Lang Lang’s sedate approach almost paid dividends. Or at least it would’ve had Lucas Plozza (6/11) not gone wicket-crazy.
“We tried everything to get them to play a few shots – donkey drops, Ryan Little bowling 10 foot above the pitch and they were blocking them out,” Cardinia batsman Ricky Campbell said. “They stuck it out and blocked and blocked – we then tried a bit of bodyline action and had few dropped catches off the gloves too.”
Plozza cleaned up the tail in record time to finish the job and give the Bulls the extra points – and extra percentage – needed to steal the minor flag.
Re-joining the side after Christmas -as one of the big parts of the cause since his return from the Sunraysia competition – Campbell was amazed to see the weekend’s result unfurl before his eyes as the Bulls went to the top of the table.
“Generally doesn’t happen,” Ricky Campbell said. “Going from fifth to first in the last game, we thought it would have to be an outright, and it’s never easy to get the 20 wickets.
““Knew from the week before with Pakenham getting the outright against Lang Lang, we’d have to rely on other people to lose just to get in and get the win.
“We had the mindset about putting them in and getting the wickets on the first day and bowling line and length outside off and making a mistake.”
Cardinia has beaten Kalgidhar, Tooradin and Pakenham since Christmas and it’s that belief that Campbell – who is crucial to this surge with 414 runs –
“I didn’t play the first half of the season, but the boys have really gelled well together after Christmas time,” Campbell said. “Brad Tanner and the likes of Travis Welsh have really built the experience – you could probably say – it’s been good.
“We beat Kalgidhar, the top team, and still dropped back a place because Pakenham got the outright -strange occurrence there as well and there have been plenty of ups and downs during the year.”
For more on Sub-District and the race to the premiership, grab a copy of this week’s Pakenham Gazette on Wednesday.
