FINALS FIGHT FOR SAINTS
ST PETER’S has not given up hope of playing GCA2 finals, despite Saturday’s loss to top side Murgheboluc at King Lloyd Reserve.
Michael Grozdanovski was the clear man of the match for the home side, with his knock of 94 not out single-handedly chasing down St Peter’s first-innings total of 87.
But the Saints took a number of positives away from the second day, claiming the last six wickets for 24, before progressing to 4-84 at stumps in their second dig.
“I guess the first day didn’t go great for us,” St Peter’s coach Anthony Ford said.
“At drinks we’d already lost the game.
“I said, ‘This is a test of your character here, you can go one way or another. You can mope around and they’ll bat all day and make us look silly, or we can dig in and fight and see what can come of it in the end.’
“We got our wickets often and at a pretty good rate, apart from that one partnership.
“It was always going to be tough to break and I don’t think there were any real chances.”
Grozdanovski and Daanish Mehta (22) stood for more than 100, as the home side went from 4-24 to 5-127, before the Saints rolled through the tail order, with Jack Jenkins (5-48) and Stephen Illingworth (4-46) sharing the spoils.
Billy Ford then finished 37 not out in the second dig.
“We fought back in the end; we wanted to show some fight and improvement and some pride in our performance and I think we probably did that in the end,” Anthony Ford said. “We probably could have pulled up stumps a bit earlier, but I said to the guys, ‘If you’re prepared to dig in and take it seriously, let’s bat time on the second day’.”
Ford said his side had not given up hopes of playing finals as it sits 10 points outside the four in sixth spot, with games against Torquay and Marshall to come.
“We’re still with a chance. I’m not really sure what results need to go our way but I think we’re still half a chance,” he said.
“We’ve got to learn how to win and it might be in different situations, fighting for a finals spot or against a team down the bottom. It’s going to be tough, but while there’s hope, we keep fighting.”