Sport
4 January, 2024
Crows seeking season sweep against Colts Phelans
Beaufort’s sensational campaign which saw them reach the one-day final starts again on Saturday when they host their first home game of the season against Colts Phelans. With their home ground at Goldfields Reserve out of action as a new pitch was...
Beaufort’s sensational campaign which saw them reach the one-day final starts again on Saturday when they host their first home game of the season against Colts Phelans.
With their home ground at Goldfields Reserve out of action as a new pitch was being installed, it’s been a supreme start for a Crows team which has travelled for every game up to this point, sitting second on the ladder.
Meantime, Colts Phelans are currently just outside the top four, two points behind Carisbrook, and will be looking for an opportunity to take Carisbrook’s spot in fourth if results can go their way.
However, they’ll have to improve upon two losses to the Crows earlier in the season, which saw them beaten fairly comfortably on both occasions.
In particular, they will need to stop Lachlan Oddie, who was supreme over their two clashes, scoring 176 runs without losing his wicket.
That weekend has allowed Oddie to come into the two-day format enjoying an average of 55.8 with the bat.
Oddie, crucially, has had support, with Jack Smith and Kriss Ellis also performing well, while Shannon Brown has also given the Crows some stability in their lower-middle order.
With the ball, it’s all been about the combination of Jay English and Oddie, who have combined for 26 wickets. To put that into perspective, that equals the amount of wickets Colts Phelans have taken this season.
While it also equates to 49 percent of the Crows’ wickets, they’ve also had solid support from Blake Jantzen (seven wickets), Dan Quixley (four wickets) and Joe Kingsbury (four wickets).
Meantime, Colts Phelans, in recent games, have been improving with the bat, and they’ll be looking to get some good runs as they move into the two-day game, which saw them play off for last year’s premiership.
While it is a vastly different team which is taking to the field this time around, there’s still some batters that are coming into the longest format of the game enjoying some good form.
It was this time last year that Rhys Wagstaff was enjoying a breakout campaign, and he has carried on with it this season, leading the way with 201 runs, including 108 runs against Beaufort in their one-day loss earlier in the season, carrying his bat in the process.
Alongside him, Dave Robinson has been a very handy recruit, scoring 183 runs, while Luke Tatchell (111 runs) and Dayne Baker (103 runs) have provided handy innings in the middle order.
As mentioned before, Colts’ biggest downfall has been their lack of wicket-taking throughout the season, taking just 26 wickets — the fewest in the league.
A lot of the responsibility, then, will be on Baker, Robinson and Nick Henderson, who have combined for 22 of those 26 wickets — or 85 percent.
Should that trio get some early wickets, however, they will feel they can take it right up to the Crows.