MILDURA West have hit form but have a big test ahead of them on Saturday in the form of ladder leaders Irymple in round 8 of Sunraysia cricket.
Sitting just outside the top four with three wins and four losses after the opening seven Twenty20 rounds, West are riding a surge of three straight wins over Merbein South, fourth-placed Nichols Point and Coomealla Wentworth.
The John Hall Oval-based side is starting to come together, according to captain-coach Chris Williams.
“It wasn’t an ideal start to the season,” he said.
“We obviously had some player turnover – if you call it that – in and out, so things can’t just click straightaway.
“We’ve taken our time to get used to Twenty20 as well. I think there was one game scheduled last year for that but it was rained out just before Christmas. It’s a completely different game of cricket.
“We probably should have beaten East and Setts in the two close games we lost, so we knew the fact with 10 points up for grabs for a Twenty20 game we couldn’t afford to drop too many more otherwise we’d be completely out of the hunt.
“We changed some tactics around and looked at some things and we are very pleased with winning three in a row to this point.”
West will have to adapt to different conditions this week when they host the Swallows, with the game effectively reduced to a one-day game played under two-day conditions due to last weekend’s play being washed out.
While total overs of innings will be halved, there are no fielding or bowling restrictions, which Williams questioned.
“It should just be a one-day game, with the white ball and green clothing,” he said.
“We can only play what has been set up but to me it’s another different format that we’ve got to learn and think out what would be the best way to go, but I guess no bowling restrictions will make it quite interesting – no fielding restrictions of course.
“We’ll have some plans, and I’m sure Irymple will have some plans as well, we’ll hopefully come out on top, but it’s a tough game, Irymple are up there and we know they will be up there for the majority of the season so it’s a good challenge and a good test for us.”
One plan that has worked well for West in their winning run is taking the pace off the ball in the Twenty20s.
Import spinner Aaron Feroz (12 wickets at an average of 10) and former Workers Gol Gol player Thanura Rajapakse (nine wickets at 14) have added a different edge to West’s bowling line-up.
“They are both very different bowlers, which helps … the fact one bowls a little quicker and one bowls with a bit more flight and air allows us to treat them as two different spinners and they can bowl in tandem,” Williams said.
“We’ll certainly see that going forward in the games when overs aren’t restricted.
“It’s a tactic of ours, it obviously allows me to bowl some medium pace if required as well as off-spin, so it’s a good choice to have.”
