Defeat not the end for improving Dolphins
GOLD Coast captain Max Houlahan says the Dolphins are headed in the right direction, despite missing a golden opportunity to open their Queensland Premier Cricket account on Saturday.
Having fallen to Wests on the opening day of the season before their Round 2 clash with Sandgate-Redcliffe was washed out, the Dolphins travelled to South Brisbane at the weekend needing a win to book a quarterfinal spot.
They appeared on track when Josh Kann (2-30) and Matt Kuhnemann (3-41) combined to have the hosts struggling at 5-82, but a century from Aryan Jain (112 not out) lifted Souths to 6-231 from their 50 overs.
The efforts of Jack Hargreaves (92), Houlahan (34) and Liam Hope-Shackley (19) then had the Coast cruising at 2-112, but the latter’s dismissal sparked a downward spiral that ended at 214 all out in the 47th over.
“I think there was a lot of positives to take out of it,” Houlahan said.
“We could’ve probably bowled a little bit better towards the end and fielded better but all in all, it was a very much improved effort. With the bat, we were cruising and looked like we were going to win pretty easily (but) spin was our downfall and we lost a clump of wickets. We can only build on that.”
The Dolphins will play their first two-day game away to Valleys this Saturday.