THIRD MAN GCA VETERAN INJURED IN LOSS
GEELONG Cricket Association teammates Richie Oliver and Pat Richards will quickly turn back from teammates to foes when day two of the crunch match between Leopold and Geelong City resumes on Saturday.
Richards is 39 not out at stumps, with the Lions 3-89, needing just 55 runs to take first-innings points and essentially end Geelong City’s finals dreams.
But while Oliver and Richards have been teaming together to help the GCA defend its Melbourne Country Week crown, City coach Aaron Randall believes Oliver might even take a few notes on how to dismiss Richards this weekend.
“To be fair, with the way Richie Oliver thinks about his cricket, he’ll leave no stone unturned in trying to get the seven wickets,” Randall said.
“Rich will have a chance spending the week with Patty Richards at country week to maybe create a few little angles or a couple of different ideas going forward, but the best cricketers do the simple things best and if our bowlers can hit some good line and length ball after ball, it will go back to creating dot-ball pressure and dot balls will in turn bring wickets.”
Randall admitted his side batted poorly after it turned its cruisy 0-58 start into a disastrous all out for 143.
City is fifth on the ladder, already a game out of the four with one round left after Saturday.
“We’ll have no one but ourselves to blame if we fall six points short or if we fall percentage short,” he said.
“No doubt we’re relying on other results to go our way. We’ve got to do the right thing first by winning our game and give ourselves the best chance by winning 12 points in two games.” DAMIEN RACTLIFFE