FINALS FEVER:
MODEWARRE captain Luke Davidson believes his side is playing its best cricket at the right time of year.
The Warriors tuned up for their semi-final meeting against Geelong West with a comfortable eight-wicket victory over fellow semi-finalist Alexander Thomson on Saturday.
Resuming day two requiring just 54 more runs with eight wickets in hand, Aaron Hovey (37) and Davidson (61) made sure they reached the target without the loss of any more wickets.
Brendan Wemyss (51) and Alex Bowd (24) then had some valuable time in the middle before both were dismissed by Jake Mundy (3-28). Davidson believes his side is primed to challenge for the premiership.
“I think we are, we’ve slowly built and jelled as a team, getting some continuity in the team that’s playing week in week out,” he said.
“Blokes have learnt their roles and we’re starting to click. Hopefully two more games and we can have the trophy in our hands.”
Davidson said some renewed faith in their batting unit — which has often been overshadowed by a strong bowling attack — has the Warriors feeling confident heading into the semi-final against the Rams.
“We’ve made 250 two games in a row, so as a batting group we’re going in with a bit of confidence,” Davidson said.
“It hasn’t been our strong suit for the year, so to know that we’ve got 250 in the locker is pretty handy considering our bowling attack.
“A lot of games this year we’ve had just one guy making a score, whereas the last couple of weeks we’ve had two or three contributing and chipping in.
“If you have one guy making the majority of the runs you’re only going to make 150, so to have two or three click on the same way has been great.”
Davidson, himself, struck his first half-century of the season in a welcome return to form.
“It was nice to get among them but there’s bigger fish to fry in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “It was a close game the first time we played them going down by a wicket, and then they made 220 against us and we were able to chase it down. It’ll be a good battle.”