A ‘little’ looks to go a very long way

IGNATIUS Park will defend its Streetsmarts Queensland State Cricket Open Championship title next month after emerging on top in the regional Queensland finals.

But it had to go through to the state finals the tough way, scoring two wins in the one day against Cairns outfit St Augustines College and Mackay’s Mercy College.

Ignatius Park is the only Townsville school to progress to the state finals after both Kirwan High (Open Girls) and Southern Cross Catholic College (Intermediate Girls) were knocked out in the NQ Mega Region finals on Friday.

While it might have the state trophy still sitting in the school cabinet from when it won the tournament in 2019, Ignatius Park coach Chris Baily believed the pressure was not on his side.

With a finals clash against either The Southport School or Nudgee College, Baily said his side were the ‘little team that could’ in comparison to the Brisbane giants.

“I know that (the players) know they are going against the best cricketers in the state, but they’re challenge-ready,” he said. “They have tested everyone else and they are ready to go play cricket.

“We have no pressure against us or on us.

“It could be TSS or Nudgee, those schools have full blown cricket development programs that would stand up to schools around the world.

“We are the little team that could. I am very excited by the opportunity to be honest. It’s not as if we are chump cricketers, the boys are excellent cricketers. We are here to enjoy our cricket and ultimately we are going down there for one reason, to win the title.”

Baily said he could not be prouder of his side.

It was tough conditions for batting, and despite only posting just over 100 runs in both of their games, it was the tactical nous of skipper Cody Sadler and his strong bowling line-up that made the difference.

“Cody just managed the game really well in that second innings to squeeze the run rate and put pressure on them,” Baily said. “We knew what our goal was.”