Boost to Inverleigh confidence

INVERLEIGH will be searching to shake off any notion of being an easybeat side as it chases its first BPCA win against Collendina today.

The competition newcomer is yet to bat past 55 overs this season.

But after restricting the reigning A-grade premier to a modest 175 last weekend, it now has its best opportunity to claim a maiden victory and prove itself to the rest of the competition.

“The first two weeks were pretty disappointing with the bat,” captain-coach David Peel said.

“We struggled to bat 50 overs, let alone 75, so in an ideal world if we can bat 75 overs I think we’re pretty confident we can win the game.

“The earlier you can tick off that first win, it takes a bit of pressure off everyone in the side and maybe a few more (wins) will start to come after that. So especially to knock off a side such as Collendina would really mean that we’re not looked upon as a side that’s an easybeat for sure.

“It would mean a lot to the club and to the players.”

Inverleigh will have to compile its largest total for the season if it is to chase down Collendina’s 175, something that isn’t made any easier by Collendina’s knack of protecting a score of almost any size.

“I know they’ve got some pretty handy bowlers from looking at the results from last week and the week before,” Peel said.

“They obviously can defend low scores, even looking at the grand final last year, so it certainly won’t be an easy task, but we’ll just have to knuckle down and do our best.”

Helping their cause however will be the return of opener Lachlan Platt, who missed their second-round clash and last week had to leave the side a man down in the field for a large chunk of Collendina’s overs.

“He was off to a wedding. He’d be our strongest bat so he played most of the day to ensure we had him for the next week so we were happy to take that risk,” Peel said. “It was pretty pleasing with 10 men for the last 10 or 12 overs to keep them under 200.”