Vintage Vines a star to savour
GEELONG star Eamonn Vines has been declared as the best batsman in Premier Cricket by experienced teammate Dom McGlinchey.
The skipper’s incredible consistency means the Cats “take him for granted” according to spearhead McGlinchey after Vines again steered Geelong home with a score of 65 against Dandenong on Saturday.
The left-hander has belted 665 runs at an average of 73.9 this year to sit at the top of the Premier charts, 102 runs ahead of second-placed Blake Thomson from Melbourne.
Vines’ lowest score so far has been 22.
In his past six innings he has belted 79 not out, 47, 73, 115 not out, 90 and 65, a remarkable run in one-day matches.
Geelong has won five out of those six matches.
“He is on another level at the moment, he is just churning them out for fun,” McGlinchey said of his skipper.
“He has just got such an incredibly high price on his wicket and I think the best thing about Vinesy’s game at the moment is the fact that he probably wasn’t always known for his white ball cricket, he is a bit of a red ball maestro.
“Now he has added different elements to his game. There are lots of good cricketers getting around in Premier grade and I am probably a little bit biased but I don’t think there is any better bat in the competition than Vinesy, even when state cricketers are around.”
“He knows his game inside out but he is also working really hard to develop different areas and he is showing that by being pretty versatile and scoring at a strike rate of about 100 in pretty much all of his knocks.”
The half-century against Dandenong from Vines again allowed other Cats to play an aggressive game at the other end.
Geelong’s improved form since Christmas has come thanks to more threatening bowling and from building a batting game plan with Vines paired with ball strikers at the other.
“I know we sort of take him for granted a little bit and it is just an expectation that he has created for himself that he gets the job done week in, week out,” McGlinchey said.
“That suits the rest of our batting order with Tom Jackson and Josh McDonald who are pretty aggressive bats and like to take the game on. So to have Vinesy there basically rotating the strike and continuing to churn out runs lets them play the way they want to and is best for the team.”