WE’RE NOT DONE — SKIPPER
MELBOURNE Renegades captain Tom Cooper insists it’s not all “doom and gloom” despite last night’s 101-run thrashing at the hands of Brisbane Heat.
Cooper admitted nothing went right for his side, which crashed to a second-straight heavy defeat in Geelong, just days after a convincing victory over the Heat in Queensland.
“It was a very disappointing day,” Cooper said post-match.
“They obviously outplayed us and everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. We’ll have to bounce back from it very quickly.”
The Renegades were poor with bat and ball, conceding a monster total of 192 before being routed for 91 on a flat pitch at GMHBA Stadium.
“With a score like that on the board, most things have to go right and we didn’t get off to the greatest start and continued in that vein after that,” Cooper said.
The decision to attack the Heat with pace backfired as Max Bryant carved a rapid 44 from 24 balls to set the tone.
Bash Brothers Brendon McCullum (69 from 43) and Chris Lynn (66 from 44) also poured on the pain with an 89run stand.
But Cooper blamed the bowling for the defeat, despite losing wickets frequently.
“It was a pretty good wicket ... well, they made it look a very good wicket,” he said.
“We were reasonably confident that we could have a good dip at it, if not chase it down, so to capitulate like that is very disappointing and it’s something we’re going to have to rectify quickly.”
The batters have been under siege for the bulk of the tournament, but Cooper was not prepared to forecast changes for Wednesday night’s clash with Sydney Sixers. “It’s hard to say,” Cooper said.
“Last game we did to them what they did to us, so it’s not all doom and gloom but it is a disappointing performance.
“We’ll go away and look at it and go from there.”
Cooper said the length of the season — given the Renegades have just passed the halfway mark — gave his side confidence it could turn its tournament around.
“You can’t just wipe it away, because if you keep doing it, it’s not ideal, but the longer season gives you more opportunities to rectify those problems,” he said.
“As we’ve seen in the past, teams that have momentum at the back-end of the tournament more than often go on to win it.
“We can go away and look at where we went wrong and try and get that remedy for next time.”
Cooper said the likely lure of international players, namely skipper Aaron Finch, would be a massive boost for the Renegades.
Finch was dropped from the squad for the two-Test series against Sri Lanka, making him available as early as this coming weekend.
“It’s disappointing for him, but it’s a win for the Renegades,” Cooper said.
“To get a player of that calibre back is very exciting, but in saying that, we can’t keep putting out performances like that.
“One person isn’t going to change that. We’ve all got to go away and work out a plan going forward to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
Cooper, himself, is under pressure, having returned scores of 6, 0, 13, 10, 16, 14, 36* and 10.
But he insists he will be able to bat himself out of a rut.
“I couldn’t be hitting it any better, to be honest,” he said.
“I’m frustrated that everything that has been mis-hit has found a fielder.
“As I said, I couldn’t be hitting them any better in the nets, so I don’t think runs are too far away.”
It didn’t help that Cooper was given out lbw when he claimed he hit the ball.