By Nick Creely
WARRAGUL AND DISTRICT CRICKET ASSOCIATION
REVIEW – ROUNDS 3 AND 4
What a barnstorming start from the Cats.
There would have been no doubt that Taplins Road would have been buzzing on Sunday night.
Catani’s first taste of top-flight cricket in the Warragul and District Cricket Association couldn’t have gone more to plan.
Back-to-back wins on Saturday and Sunday against Yarragon to kick off life in Division 1 will do wonders for the confidence that it not only belongs in Warragul’s top-flight of cricket, but that it can truly make a significant impact on the competition.
“We wanted to start the year and get a win as soon as possible to try and prove to ourselves that we’re not out of our depth, and that we will be competitive,” Cats president Brad ‘Snags’ McDonald explained.
“After the two days, we’ve certainly proved that. I was stoked, I was able to watch every ball of the Sunday game, and it was great to see.”
Saturday was a golden day for the Cats, who rolled Yarragon for 81 despite a fighting 42 from Amal Athulathumudali, but were stunned by a sublime bowling performance from Josh Miller.
Miller snagged the incredible figures of 6/23 from 6.4 overs, rummaging through the Panthers with swagger.
He was ably supported by Tyler Molloy who snared 2/10 to cap off a brilliant bowling effort.
The Cats were untroubled, knocking around 73 for the first wicket before running down the total with eight wickets to spare.
Josh Bethune showed his class with 41 from the top of the order.
But if Saturday wasn’t enough, the Cats then backed it up with another win on Sunday against the Panthers in Round 4.
And it took another dominant showing, this time from a batter to capture the attention.
After Miller’s golden day with the ball on Saturday, opener Liam Adams was the man with the bat on Sunday, spanking a century to guide the visitors to 7/218.
Adams combined for a 167-run opening stand with Ned Harrison (58) to set up the total.
Despite another fine knock by Athulathumudali (67), the Panthers were restricted to 8/163.
McDonald was full of praise for second-year coach James Vela, who is driving the standards down at the club as the Cats look to continue building and not just be a passenger in Division 1.
“You take a bit of a risk putting on a young coach, but when your coach is such great mates with his players and is able to separate the mateship from the job and make them pull their heads in and set disciplinary measures and standards, it’s brilliant,” he said.
“To have a young coach, it shows the professionalism that they want to get, so I was proud of that.
“He’s stepped it up to the next level, we want to take it seriously. The average age is 22, 23 so we want to set high standards and keep getting better. But we got into Div 1, so we now know we’ve got the chance to take it really seriously.
“Nobody’s mentioning finals yet, but they don’t want to be making up numbers.”
In other results on Saturday, Western Park (4/120) got the job done against Ellinbank (119), Hallora (1/71) spanked Warragul (69), while Drouin (7/162) banked a vital win against Neerim District (9/158).
On Sunday, Neerim District (7/165) got one back on Drouin (8/164), Ellinbank also tasted victory after defeat against Western Park (7/160), with Nick Fairbank starring with an unbeaten 95, while Hallora (186) banked another big win against Warragul (8/116).
