DOOLAN KEEPS THE FAITH
NOT only did another century by Alex Doolan serve as a reminder to Tasmanian selectors, “Dools” believes his young South Hobart-Sandy Bay teammates will also tempt state selectors.
As the Sharks close in on a win Glenorchy in their penultimate CTPL home-and-away game at KGV on Saturday, Doolan, who added 160 last Saturday to the 210 he scored against Greater Northern, said the quest to regain a place among the Tigers is his goal.
“Absolutely. Anyone wants to be playing at the highest level,” he said.
“My goal changed.
“Selection is not going my way at the moment but that’s not deterring me.
“Any selection panel wants their players scoring hundreds.
“Fortunately for Tassie, they’ve had quite a few players has never performing really well in the lower grades.”
South Hobart is in the box seat against Glenorchy, which resumes at 0-16 chasing 5-340.
“Early wickets will be the key,” Doolan said.
“We saw with our innings that being able to minimise the damage with the new ball was a real key for us to post a good total.
“We believe by Gabe Bell coming back into the side we can take early wickets and we are well-equipped with three really good spinners, too.”
The Sharks are showing finals-style form at the right time of the season.
“We started the season a little bit slowly, but we’ve had quite a turnover of players and we’ve got a very young side, which means there are going to be some times where we place some inconsistent cricket — that’s just the nature of it,” Doolan said.
“The guys we’ve got playing are very talented and it’s a matter of time before they are pushing their own case for state selection.”
Young turks such as leftarm orthodox spinner and lefthand batter, Tom Willoughby, who scored a 96 against Greater Northern, leg-spinner Caedence Kuepper, who spent time in the Hurricanes’ BBL hub, and teenage wicketkeeper Max Denehey, lead the Sharks’ new guard.
In other games, Clarence is 1-50 in pursuit of Lindisfarne’s 147 at Anzac Park, University’s clash against New Town at Uni Oval is evenly poised, with the home side posting 224 and the Bucks 2-62 in reply, and Kingborough scored 223 against Greater Northern at the Twin Ovals and the visitors resume at 2-43.