MILDURA West’s destiny is in their own hands.
Win today against sixth-placed Nichols Point and they are in the finals. But lose and they are likely to be leapfrogged by Coomealla-Wentworth, who should have little trouble in accounting for winless Merbein South.
It shapes as a thrilling final round in Sunraysia cricket, but Mildura West coach Davison Mbindi is confident his team can get the job done.
“The boys are full of confidence at the moment,” Mbindi said after his team’s win over ladder leaders Workers Gol Gol last weekend.
“I can see it in the changerooms. They are backing each other. There is a positive vibe about the way they are doing everything. As a coach, if you can get the players into that space, you don’t have to do a lot.”
After a slow start to the season, Mildura West have emerged as arguably the form team of the competition after the Christmas break.
They grabbed fourth spot last week after rolling the top side, making it six wins from their past seven games. Their only loss in the run home was by three runs to third-placed Mildura Settlers, so they certainly won’t be just making up the numbers were they to secure a finals place today.
The hot run of form has been built on the back of their defensive one-day game plan, where Mbindi’s young attack has been bowling to one side of the wicket to a stacked field. The athleticism of the fielding unit have also been contributing in consistently keeping teams to fewer than 150 runs off their 40 overs.
Last weekend, the talented Workers Gol Gol batting order was restricted to just 135, while West also kept the destructive Mildura Settlers to just 155 in that narrow loss.
“A lot of teams know what we are doing now, and every team that plays us knows they should be thinking seriously about how they go about it,” Mbindi said.
“The challenge earlier in the year was to try and get that buy-in from the players, who were not used to that style of play or approach. But after Christmas, we have found that consistency in what we were trying to do, and we have that buy-in now.
“The players are driving it and I can tell you right now that it is definitely hard for any team to stop us.”
But Mbindi said his team could ill afford to look any further than today, with Nichols Point capable of undoing all their great post-Christmas work.
Opening batsman Leigh Thomson-Mathews is capable of clearing the ropes with ease, and the batting form of coach Shaun Mathews is starting to click.
While the Pointers are out of the finals race, they won well last weekend, and will want to finish on a high.
Mbindi understood the threat of a batsman like Thomson-Mathews, but said the secret for his team was to remain focused on their own plans.
“A guy who plays unconventionally will give chances,” he said. “We’ve got to focus on what we can do and what we can control and forget about what the guy at the other end is doing.
“Whether you win or lose a match, if you can execute your plans to the best of your ability, then that is good enough for me.”
