Season not dead, says Canes coach

HOPE FOR HOBART

HOBART Hurricanes coach Jeff Vaughan believes his side has what it takes to do damage this BBL finals series, should they get there, despite another disastrous showing on the road.

The Hurricanes failed to back-up two consecutive wins at Blundstone Arena on Wednesday night with the top of the table Perth Scorchers once again proving they are the team to beat with a sevenwicket win over the inconsistent Hobart.

The top order of leading Hurricanes run scorer Caleb Jewell (8 off 8), Ben McDermott (7 off 12), Matthew Wade (0 off 3) and Zac Crawley (19 off 19) combined for just 34 runs with the top score coming from bowler Tom Andrews (27 off 21) at the back end of the innings.

Despite sitting fifth on the ladder, the pre-tournament fancies have failed to register a win outside of Tasmania this summer with four of their five victories coming at Bellerive and the other at UTAS Stadium in Launceston. While they may have failed to live up to the hype placed on them, Vaughan believes the season isn’t dead just yet.

“Clearly a very disappointing result for us,” Vaughan said post-match.

“We didn’t play anywhere near our best cricket. It’s been something we’ve done through fair chunks of the season. We are unable, at the moment, to put a full game together. Whether it’s with the bat or with the ball and unfortunately for us, it was another one of them tonight.

“We’ve been mixing the makeup of our team throughout the tournament. At different stages we’ve played five and six versus four and seven so we are still trying to find out what our best method will be moving forward. It’s still very much a tight ladder and we are one of three teams on 10 points and Brisbane right behind on nine and we have the Heat in two of our last three games.

“If we play some good cricket (in these last three games) and get into the finals, we strongly believe we can get on a roll (in the finals).”

While their net run rate also took a hit at Optus Stadium, that wasn’t the only concern to come out of the game with spinner Paddy Dooley limping off with a groin injury with the emerging spinner only just returning from finger and shoulder concerns.

“I’m pretty confident (he will be fine),” Vaughan said.

“He’s had a shoulder and a finger injury and keeps bouncing back. He’s been a bit like Superman throughout the tournament so my expectation is that he will do everything in his favour to get himself up for Friday night and I’d expect him to play.”

The Hurricanes face the Heat at the Gabba from 8pm.