Sport
3 December, 2020
Steamrollers down Rebels
NOORAT skipper Steve O’Connor was thrilled his side claimed a top four scalp last Saturday.
NOORAT skipper Steve O’Connor was thrilled his side claimed a top four scalp last Saturday.
The Steamrollers recorded a four wicket win over pacesetters Heytesbury Rebels to move to second on the ladder behind Mortlake after seven rounds.
O’Connor considers Mortlake to be the competition’s benchmark thus far but was pleased to defeat another side inside the top four.
“It was good to get the win on the board,”he said.
“Obviously when we played Mortlake we lost to them and we’d considered ourselves to be as good as the top teams so it was good to play another top team.
“We’d consider Pomborneit and Heytesbury as two of the other top teams to compare ourselves with so it was good to beat one of the other top sides.”
The Steamrollers bowled first against the Rebels and restricted them to 170 before they passed the target in the final over.
O’Connor said he was pleased his side ground out the victory.
“One hundred and seventy is a good score at Noorat but we took regular wickets,” he said.
“They could have got away from us at a couple of stages but we just took a couple of wickets at the right times and then steadied which was good.
“We lost a wicket on the first ball of our innings but we were able to recover with a couple of good partnerships, like I think Dave (Conheady) and I put on about 70.
“We had another good partnership between Jake (Fishwick) and Gus (Bourke) which got us to 130 and then we had some good steady heads to get us over the line in the end.”
The skipper praised a number of charges for their performances in the win.
“Jimmy Moloney took 3/22 off his 10 and got some big wickets and Daniel Kenna took two wickets I think so both of them were good for us along with Isaac Kenna who was economical,” O’Connor said.
“Dave Conheady was good at the top of the order, he made 35 and has come back to some good form after missing a few games early while Fishwick made 56 and also had a good day with the bat.”
With a top two spot now secure, O’Connor said his side wanted to put pressure on the chasing pack as the competition heads towards the Christmas break.
Noorat faces reigning premier Pomborneit at Pomborneit this weekend, with the skipper keen to extend the side’s winning run.
“We’re really keen to keep winning,” O’Connor said.
“Our aim is to make the finals and looking at the ladder and the draw I think you’ll need 10 wins to make it so until we get to that we need to keep winning.
“Pomborneit are going to be hard to beat over there so hopefully we can perform and extending our gap between the chasing pack.
“It’ll be big for us if we can and will put the pressure back on those sides below us.”