Sport
29 November, 2024
Key game for finals chances of Carisbrook and Clunes
It’s go time for both Carisbrook and Clunes — both needing a victory in the context of their finals chances longer-term.
While both teams can well-and-truly kiss their chances of a one-day final berth goodbye, the opportunity to potentially set themselves up for later in the season with their two-day campaign is up for grabs.
It was Carisbrook that took the first initiative in round four as they memorably chased down a target of 234 with four balls to spare — one of their best wins.
An even team performance across the board was the key for Carisbrook, with Martin Mark, Dean Nalder and Liam Hurse all scoring above 40, while Chris Lee scored an unbeaten 35 to help guide the Brookers home.
Nalder has had a sensational season up to this point, and again looks to be one of the leading runscorers in the competition with 147 at an average of 49.
Hurse too, is enjoying a solid campaign, scoring 104 runs at an average of 34.3, while Mark sits in third at the Brookers with 72 runs.
A number of Magpies have been able to put scores together this season, but haven’t quite been able to string it all together for a big team total as of yet.
Last week, there were signs from a number of batsmen that they looked settled for a big innings, until they were brought undone.
Anthony Ellis has been in great form as of late, scoring an excellent 62 against Laanecoorie Dunolly, and following that up with another 30 against Beaufort.
Jude McGuire has made a welcome return to the team, and looks like he is ready to take another step with a solid 39 last week, but it was Brendan Ingram who was critical for the Magpies making 181 runs, showing he wasn’t afraid to take a backwards step against the likes of constant wicket-takers such as Lachlan Oddie and Tom Alexander, and rewarded with an excellent 53.
However, while both teams have been competitive with the bat, it is with the ball where both teams need to continue working to get closer to the top teams.
The Magpies were in the game last week after restricting Beaufort to 3/73, but there were no more wickets as Oddie took the game away.
Brett Coon has been terrific this season in taking seven wickets to lead the way, while Mark Allen took two wickets to move to second with four wickets.
The current reality at the moment is that from five games, Clunes have taken 23 wickets — only Colts Phelans have fewer with 22, but they’ve also played one fewer game.
Carisbrook have fared better with 28 wickets, but their key equation to solve at the moment is restricting their run rate.
Of all their bowlers, Nalder is currently the only one that has conceded below five runs an over, sitting at 4.7, while he has also been rewarded with six wickets to lead the way for the Brookers.
Hurse is not far behind, taking five wickets, while Atticus Cullinan has also taken five — the caveat, however, is they currently concede 5.2 and 7.6 runs per over, and both will be looking to reduce this number this week.