Jake is the real deal as he digs out big innings in spades
MODEWARRE import Jake Hooson will have his first Christmas away from home, but the Englishman couldn’t be more pleased with his Australian summer so far.
The 24-year-old is in untouchable form at the moment, having smashed 431 runs at 61.6 across all forms of cricket for the GCA3 club.
His 82 not out in Tuesday’s T20 game at Teesdale came off the back of scores of 104 not out and 93 in recent twoday fixtures, and the taste of synthetic cricket has whet the appetite for this weekend’s clash at Bannockburn.
“I feel like I’ve acclimatised and starting to get a bit of form,” Hooson said.
“I had a couple of low scores at the beginning but I’m feeling good now.
“I think it’s really just working hard for your runs, a lot of concentration.
“You don’t get many bad balls at all, so you’ve got to really work hard for it and be as patient as possible.
“I’m not used to two-day cricket so it probably took me a few games to adjust and now starting to find some form, so hopefully I can carry on.”
Modewarre captain-coach Luke Davidson said Hooson, who also bowls spin, was shooting the lights out.
“Yeah he’s in great form. He’s finally starting to get used to the pitches a bit and he’s a class act,” Davidson said.
“When we first met, we saw him bat and thought, ‘ Gee, we’ve got a good one here’.
“He’s just showing his talent and what he can actually do. Hopefully he can continue it on.”
While Hooson is excited about spending a couple of days at the Boxing Day Test as well as a day at the Sydney Test, the fourth-placed Warriors aren’t looking past Bannockburn who will be out to bounce back from Saturday’s loss to Geelong West.
“It’s massive. They’re obviously going all right; coming off a loss, they’ll want to redeem themselves,” Davidson said.
“It’s on hard wicket so we’ll see how we go. Hopefully we can get the chockies and roll into Christmas with back-toback wins and keep rolling on.
“I think ‘Bocca’ (Brendan Wemyss) has got a wedding, so he’ll probably miss, but I’m pretty sure it’ll be pretty much the same XI going in — no reason to drop anyone from what we’ve been doing.”
Davidson believes his side, which lost last year’s GCA3 decider, is playing well enough to feature in finals again this season.
“Top-four sides win those close ones so when you haven’t had an opportunity to get an outright like a few of the other top teams … and then we obviously had the draw, there’s three points missed out on,” he said.
“But we can only beat who we’re playing and we’re doing well at the moment.”