Sport
29 November, 2024
Colts and Laane meet in potential final preview
Make no mistake, this is a big afternoon for Colts Phelans.
Win this game at True Blue Floors Oval, and end Laanecoorie Dunolly’s long winning run in the process, and they can secure a spot in the one-day grand final.
However, a loss will mean that they are right back in the firing line, and a winner-take-all clash with Beaufort would be the result.
It will be fascinating to see how Colts approach this game — it’s their first game in 21 days, and their second since October 26.
Their last start victory against Beaufort was critical, given the performances of key cogs such as Regan Goundry and Rhys Egan.
Goundry was simply superb against the Crows, cleaning up the tail to finish with four wickets, while finishing off the job with 53 unbeaten runs.
Although there is the obvious caveat of playing three games, Goundry’s numbers have been spectacular.
An average of 48 with the bat and 10.3 with the ball has indicated an excellent start to life at Colts, while fellow Englishmen Max Jackson and Charlie Scorer have also settled into the lineup well.
Egan is currently seventh on the batting charts, leading the club with 125 runs at an average of 41.7, which included 60 runs in his last start, setting the platform for Colts’ chase, despite wickets falling all around him.
There will be more players Colts will be hoping snap into form in such a crucial game.
Rhys Wagstaff has not clicked into gear yet after his magnificent season in 2023/24, but is due for a score, while Ben Evans will also look to get going with both bat and ball.
With the ball, Dayne Baker and Nick Henderson will be hoping to get the wickets their bowling has deserved. They currently have five wickets between them, but have been terrific in stalling opposing teams, with Henderson bowling at a run rate of three runs an over, and Baker 3.3.
As it always is, however, managing this against Laane is a task.
In particular, it is their marauding batting lineup which is proving a difficult hurdle to overcome at the moment.
Given the opportunity, just as they were two weeks ago, Laane are capable of putting together a monster score, and they have now scored 622 runs in their last two games.
Much of the damage has come from new recruit Kamaljot Romana, who has been terrific from the get-go.
Romana simply punished anything outside of his off-stump two weeks ago in making a brilliant 86, and has 152 runs in two games.
Alex Cook is still on a tear at the moment, and has scored 196 runs from just 138 balls in his last two knocks, currently boasting an average of 83.7.
Incredibly, his bowling has continued to be even more dominant, taking two wickets to move to 12 for the season, with an average that is still sitting pretty at 3.8.
The dangerous Matt Smith also finally got a chance to get out of a slight funk which had seen him score six runs in two knocks with a devastating 77 off just 47 deliveries two weeks ago.
Laane’s bowlers, as ever, are just as hard to score off.
It was Joe Lovel who had the dominant spell two weeks ago, taking 5/24 to vault up to equal third on the wicket-taking charts.
He is one of six Laane bowlers that have bowled more than 10 overs this season to have also conceded fewer than four runs an over, conceding 3.3 runs an over — Cook (2), Romana (2.6), Zach Graham (3.4), Daniel Romeo (3.6) and Sam Bartlett (3.6) are the others.
As a result, it looks set to be a fascinating battle between bat and ball across both teams’ innings, with a distinct ability from both teams’ top order to score quickly, but with a bowling unit that can stop the quick scoring from happening.