Star bat’s innings too much for Saints
GUILD-St Mary’s coach Anand Choudhary says the stunning performance of Waurn Ponds-Deakin batter Philip Visser stripped away any chance of a Saints premiership.
The South African batter capped his magnificent season with a man of the match performance in the decider.
Choudhary said he was the difference as Waurn PondsDeakin chased the target of 206 down in the 48th over with two wickets in hand to claim the GCA4 title.
“Philip Visser, what a great batsman,” he said.
“He took the game away from us, he was just too good.
“This is what you want in a grand final, you want two of the best teams with great players playing and whoever wins deserves to win.
“I think (Waurn PondsDeakin) were the best team all year and the better team on the day so they deserved to win.”
After a stunning performance in the preliminary final where the Saints posted 284 against Little River at Grinter Reserve, Guild-St Mary’s could not build a significant partnership. Four players, including Grant Stripling (37), T.J. Singh (39), Charul Patel (26) and Gurbir Randhawa (39), had more than 20 runs for the Saints, but only twice were there partnerships of 50 runs or more.
Choudhary said it was a great effort from his side to come from third to lose in a tight grand final against an almost-undefeated Saints side, who only lost to Little River in the 2022-23 season.
“I’m really proud of my teammates, we’ve had a great year,” he said.
“We had a good finals series and a good season, so we’re proud of each other and how we have played this year.”