GCA’S DREAM DUO
WARRIORS’ UNIQUE NEW BALL COMBO ALL THE RAGE
AFTER a typically accurate opening over from seamer Aaron Hovey in Modewarre’s first game of the summer against St Albans Breakwater, Warriors skipper Luke Davidson went against cricketing norm.
Ignoring prolific quick Jack O’Hanlon, Davidson on a whim threw the ball to left-arm spinner Nathan Saunders to open the bowling.
“It just happened,” Hovey said. “He went well then and since we’ve just kept opening up with him.”
Saunders finished with 1-7 off 10 overs, and since that day he and Hovey have formed GCA3’s most dynamic odd couple.
Giving Saunders the new ball was a brave — if not unconventional — move by Davidson, using a tactic more reserved for the shortest format of the game.
But the bare stats show it has been an outrageous success.
In the six games that Hovey and Saunders have shared the new ball, they have 49 wickets between them. The left-arm orthodox spinner tops the league wicket list with 29 scalps at 8.86 and Hovey has snared 20 wickets at 9.95 — the pair boasting the GCA3’s most dangerous opening partnership.
“Davo’ thinks it provides a unique challenge for the opening batsman,” Saunders said of the choice to hand him the new ball.
“As a spinner, when you come on after 20 or 30 overs, you can put protection on the boundary. Whereas when you’re opening the bowling, mostly they’re (the batsmen) slightly less aggressive and you’ve got a more aggressive field.
“Some have gone into their shell, or try and get me out of the attack by being aggressive.”
It is a successful ploy of which Hovey is happy to be a part.
“The batsmen normally attack him (Saunders), and with me I just try to get dot balls,” he said.
“And then the batsmen see a spinner come on and think they have to attack more, so he ends up with more of the wickets.”
Saunders is equally as glowing of his opening partner.
“It’s great having him at the other end,” he said of Hovey.
“He ties down an end really well and takes wickets and can clean up. It just makes things so much easier. It’s great bowling with him.”
The duo have led the Warriors’ surge to second on the table, and their shared success has Saunders looking ahead.
“We’ve got eyes on the premiership. That’s how I feel, and that’s how the rest of the teams feel,” he said.