Poor form at bat leads to loss for Cats
GEELONG coach Liam Buchanan was left to lament a series of “horrible” shots from his batsmen as the Cats crashed to an eight-wicket loss to Carlton.
After being soundly beaten by the Blues in Tuesday night’s Vic Super Slam, Geelong again lowered its colours to the Blues, going down with almost 13 overs to spare at Princes Park.
And it was the batters that let the Cats down for a second time in succession, with Hayden Butterworth, Josh McDonald, Eamonn Vines and Angus Boyd gifting Carlton their wickets in the Cats’ below par total of 209.
“The top four or five batters got out pretty ordinarily,” an honest Buchanan said.
“They played horrible shots … coach killers, all of them.
“And Gus Boyd ran out Ludey ( Tim Ludeman) and then got out himself. We went from 2-90 off 17 overs — we had them on toast, really — and then a few blokes threw away their wicket and it all changed really quickly.”
It was all the more frustrating for Buchanan, given Butterworth (37 from 41 balls) and McDonald (52 from 64) provided the Cats with a solid platform.
The pair’s 65-run stand came quickly and left Carlton with few answers until Butterworth found a way to get out.
“It was just a poor shot,” Buchanan said of Butterworth.
“I won’t go into specifics, but they were all poor shots from the top four.
“Josh batted really well, looked in total control, and then he got out reverse sweeping,” he said. “It was just some dumb shots, mate.”
Buchanan revealed he laid down the law post-match.
“We want to make sure that we don’t take our form for granted,” he said.
“I think that’s what a few of our batters did on the weekend.
“The boys were pretty good, they took responsibility for their actions, the top four or five batters, and they’ve moved on to next week.
“We’ve been pretty good in two-day cricket for a few years now and the boys are happy to get back into two-day cricket mode.
“We’re 5-2, so there’s no use dwelling on it. I didn’t want to go too hard and knock the confidence out of them, but we had an honest chat, had a beer and watched the third XI and now we’re keen to get back to doing what we do well.”
With a modest score on the board, the Blues moved quickly to put themselves in a dominant position.
Brayden Stepien, who crunched a rapid 69 on Tuesday night, was again a thorn in the Cats’ side.
He belted 128 from 125 balls, including 13 fours and four sixes, and had good support from captain Evan Gulbis (23 from 28), Hayden Smyth (23 from 36) and Tom Smyth (33 from 36) as Carlton hauled in the total in the 38th over.
But Buchanan wasn’t dis- couraged by the bowling performance of his side, especially quick Dom McGlinchey who continued his solid form.
“Dom beat the bat 10 or 15 times in his first four or five overs, and on another day, he gets a few nicks and we get into them,” Buchanan said.
“Once a few blokes got set on that pitch it was very hard to defend.”