COUTAS SET BAR HIGH
QUEENSCLIFF captaincoach Shane Healey has declared his side good enough to beat any team in BPCA A1 after a thumping 132-run victory over Collendina.
The fifth-placed Coutas face top-placed Anglesea, secondplaced Ocean Grove and thirdplaced Barrabool in the three rounds after Christmas in a block of games that will likely decide their finals fate.
“We want to keep playing good cricket and putting ourselves in positions to win games, and then being good enough to win the game when we’re in that position,” Healey said.
“We’ve got the top three sides after Christmas, so the challenge is ahead of us and we’ll see where we’re at after Christmas.
“I think our best is good enough to beat any of them. It’s just about being consistent, which is the main thing for us.”
Saturday’s win puts Queenscliff just percentage behind Barrabool (third) after a brilliant performance from Ned Rogerson with the ball ensured Collendina fell well short of the 264 victory target.
Rogerson claimed the incredible figures of 5-7 off 12 overs, with seven maidens.
“He is unbelievable, he’s a captain’s dream,” Healey said.
“He ran in hard all day and bowls well all the time. He just plugs away and he’s at the batsman all the time, so you have to play everything.
“He does a little bit each way with the ball and he’s always at you, which is his key.”
Rogerson, Healey (1-7), Ben Conlan (2-39 off 20 overs) and Thomas Kidd (1-16) quickly reduced Collendina to 6-38, before some resistance from Sam Beasley (39) and Jye Hearps (27) helped the Cobras eventually reach 131 in 61.2 overs.
“It went longer than I had hoped,” Healey said.
“They had a good partnership in the middle, which was a credit to them because we were bowling well.
“We had Ben Conlan bowl 16 overs straight into an absolute gale and went for 31 runs in those 16 overs.”
Portarlington showed some second-innings resistance, but Ocean Grove still came away with a convincing six points at Portarlington Reserve. The Grubbers declared overnight after reaching Portarlington’s target of 101 late on day one, with Fletcher Long (56) leading the way. But Port showed some fight after being put back into bat, with opening pair Sam Chisholm (80) and Harrison Haynes (28 not out) putting on 105 for the first wicket before Port eventually finished 1-134 when the game was called after 31 overs of play on Saturday.