By RUSSELL BENNETT
WGCA PREMIER DIVISION
PREVIEW – SEMI FINALS
PAKENHAM v MERINDA PARK
Venue: Toomuc Reserve, Pakenham
1st (13 wins, 1 draw) v 4th (8 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw)
Previously in 2015/16:
Round 6: Pakenham 7/339 (D. Paynter 172, R. Elston 91, J. Toan 3/44) d Merinda Park 179 (D. Cuthbertson 59, D. Paynter 3/8)
Round 9 (one-day): Pakenham 8/214 (B. Shipperd 46, R. Elston 41, C. Milne 4/59) d Merinda Park 142 (J. Pongracic 32, D. Diwell 32, C. Smith 4/13)
Lions to watch: Chris Smith (734 runs at 52.4, 19 wickets at 10.7), Dom Paynter (379 runs at 34.5, 25 wkts at 10.3), Jack Ryan (32 wkts at 14.4), Russell Lehman (25 wkts at 12.0)
Cobras to watch: Danny Diwell (400 runs at 57.1, 16 wkts at 19.7), Dylan Cuthbertson (367 runs at 40.8, 17 wickets at 24.4), Daniel McCalman (402 runs at 44.7), Jamie Smith (19 wkts at 10.6)
The tipsters:
Scott Pitcher (Upper Beaconsfield skipper): “Pakenham for me. They’ve got the overall package and they’re just a strong all-around side.”
Clinton Marsh (Emerald opening bowler): “Pakenham has too much depth and talent if you compare the sides on paper. I can’t go past a side with Smith, Lehman, Paynter, Elston, Ryan and Williams in it.”
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MERINDA Park skipper Danny Diwell summed it up best when interviewed by the Gazette in the lead-up to this weekend’s semi-finals.
“They well and truly deserve to be favourites – they’ve been the dominant side all year,” he said of the so far undefeated Pakenham.
“But finals cricket is a funny game, and a different game.
“People say they don’t feel pressure and just play their natural games, but that doesn’t happen.”
“Finals separate the great players from the good players.”
That, in a nutshell, sums up the situation in this game. Pakenham has been the class of the competition all season, with great depth with either bat or ball in hand. They’re the red-hot favourites who’ve comfortably defeated Merinda Park twice already this season. But none of that means anything now. Not really.
“Everyone is on a clean slate now. We get home final, but it’s still a 22-yard pitch – the same as theirs,” said Pakenham’s inspirational leader Dom Paynter.
“The proof is in the pudding.
“The side who has more people contribute has more of a chance of getting out of a tricky situation.
“You’ve got to have belief.”
For Paynter and his men, this week is all about staying in the moment.
“Our job is to be aware of our own weaknesses, and we’ve got a few mindset things in place,” he said.
“But at the same time, we’ll inflict our own damage.
“We’ve got confidence in each other and we won’t die wondering.
“We’ve got four of six senior sides in the finals and we’ll be encouraging everyone to have a real crack this week.”
The undefeated side is the hunted, and Paynter knows it.
“We need to be aware of it, but we’re in charge of our own destiny – it’s all about playing our own game,” he said.
“Hopefully this is our year. I want success with this group – we’ve worked so hard for it.”
When it comes to his own fitness this week, after picking up a nasty thumb injury, Paynter is emphatic.
“I’m playing – I’ll be right,” he said.
Paynter remained tight-lipped but he Gazette understands that he’ll get his thumb seen to at the completion of his side’s season, whenever that may be.
“I batted on Saturday and felt good – I didn’t feel any discomfort and the instinct to play naturally was still there,” he said.
“If I don’t score any runs, it (the thumb) is no excuse.”
“You can’t take blokes into a final who aren’t up to it.”
Diwell and his men enter this weekend’s game knowing that, at stages, they did have Pakenham on the ropes at one stage in Round 6.
“We’ll take the positives out of those games (earlier in the season),” he said.
“They were 4/50 at one stage in the first game and we let the foot of the pedal.
“But we need to be consistent with the ball all day.”
Diwell predicted any score around the 200 mark by the side batting first would be particularly tough to chase down, with finals pressure thrown in the mix.
And he remains confident in his side’s ability to perform right when it counts.
“This year we lost a few players and had to spread the load a bit more,” Diwell said.
“We’ve performed as a team, and made the finals as a team.”
CARDINIA v KOOWEERUP
Venue: E. Gunton Oval, Cardinia
2nd (9 wins, 4 losses, 1 draw) v 3rd (8 wins, 5 losses, 1 draw)
Previously in 2015/16:
Round 4: Cardinia 8/257 (N. Barfuss 75, A. Nooy 61, T. Miller 3/59, J. Bardwell 3/84) d Kooweerup 67 (M. Bright 21, D. Doig 6/31, T. Welsh 3/1)
Round 11 (one-day): Kooweerup 4/155 (C. O’Hara 65*, C. Bright 39, B. Maroney 2/13) d Cardinia 7/151 (B. Maroney 57, T. Johnston 24, J. Mathers 3/24)
Bulls to watch: Dwayne Doig (45 wkts at 10.2), Alex Nooy (546 runs at 45.5), Neil Barfuss (291 runs at 29.1, 15 wkts at 16), Dean Henwood (19 wkts at 14.9)
Demons to watch: Chris O’Hara (372 runs at 46.5, 17 wkts at 17.1), Jess Mathers (259 runs at 28.8, 27 wkts at 17.3), Chris Bright (336 runs at 28), John Bright (23 wkts at 16.3)
The tipsters:
Pitcher: “Cardinia. They’re due and they’ve got too many good players not to win in a way. They’re my tip to win the whole thing. With Doig, Maroney, Barfuss, Johnston, Nooy and Henwood they’ve got the depth to do it.”
Marsh: “Now there’s a tight one. If Kooweerup had Doofy (Michael Giles) then I would lean that way but I think Doigy is the difference here between the two teams. He’s the best spinner in the competition, (but) apart from that they are very similar.”
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IN one corner – Kooweerup, the two-time reigning Premier with a nothing to lose mentality after a season of ups and downs both on-field and off.
In the other – Cardinia, their great rival and two-time reigning vanquished grand final opponent. They’ve got their own Demons to battle when it comes to Kooweerup, but they’ll never get a better crack at them.
On paper, at least, this is the pick of this weekend’s semi-finals.
“We are going in with nothing to lose,” said Kooweerup stand-in skipper Chris Bright. A lot of things have gone down at the club and we could have just let the season slide and start fresh next year, but all four sides in the finals have a chance.”
In Bright’s eyes, the pressure this week is on Cardinia, adding: “Our advantage will be the freedom we can play with.
“Look, we want to win the flag again – it’s what every side wants. You only have to make the four, as we’ve shown in the past when we’ve won the whole thing, and we’ve got ourselves there with a chance.”
But he acknowledged this semi-final carried with it a kind of grand final pressure for both teams.
“Cardy will be out for revenge – there’s no doubt about it, and they’ve got Maroney and Doig in the side from last season,” Bright said.
“Maroney is a class batter who’s performed well in a lot of big games, and we all rate Doigy very highly as a bowler.
Bright said Matt Davey – one of the WGCA’s most proven finals performers – would come back in to the side, with Ayden Mills also in contention.
As for his key to victory?
“If we can put any sort of total on the board, we know we can contain them with the ball,” he said, likely referring to the past two grand finals in which the Demons have defended scores of just 158 and 179.
“We’ve played enough cricket against each other to know each other’s strengths and weaknesses.”
For his part, Bright’s Cardinia counterpart said: “We sure owe them.
“They’ve had a few changes this season but they were in that finals frame of mind on Saturday (against Tooradin).”
The Bulls are out for redemption, after finishing undefeated on top of the ladder last season only to stumble at the final hurdle.
“We didn’t play as well as we could have in those last two grand finals,” Barfuss said. “Some guys didn’t achieve what they should’ve.”
The Bulls’ main key this week is getting a consistency of effort from top to bottom.
“Even if it’s the fourth string bowler who bats at eight or nine, if he can get 15 runs or take a wicket or two it all adds up,” Barfuss said, also talking about the value of the big game experience provided by the likes of Ben Maroney, Trevor Johnston, and Dwayne Doig.
“You can’t buy that,” he said.
Barfuss about the form of not only Doig, but Brayden Browne and Dean Henwood who’ve gone unrewarded for their efforts so often this season.
“We need to bowl to our plans to each batsman, and set the right fields,” he said.
“The season really starts this weekend.
“Kooweerup knows how to win big games but it all comes down to who performs on the day.
“It’ll be interesting to see their captain’s decisions – what sort of things he comes up with.
“There are a few older players in both sides.
“The last few finals mean a lot towards the end of your career.
“It’s time for us to win one.”
