COOMEALLA Wentworth skipper Justin Freeman believes his team will learn plenty from its loss in game 1of the grand final series.
And despite going down to Mildura Settlers by 60 runs in a largely lopsided affair at Alcheringa Oval, he is confident it can immediately hit back with a win on Saturday and set up a decider on Sunday.
“We will take a lot out of this, especially with the bat,” Freeman said.
“I feel like we’ve got the team here to do it, but we need to place that value on our wicket, because I feel like they are not the strongest bowling line-up going around and we’ve got to take advantage of that in the early overs and not fall into a hole like we did today.”
The Blues were set a big target of 180 off 40 overs by the aggressive Settlers batting line-up and never looked like chasing it down after a disastrous start with the bat.
They slumped to 5/16 against the guile of Mark Kerr and Jason Morrison to ruin any chance of an upset win.
Only a fighting 59 from Matt Job salvaged pride in the batting performance, but Freeman said the rest of the order could take confidence from the left-hander’s knock.
“He showed what all the batsmen should be doing in the top six,” Freeman said. “Get yourself in and take advantage of it later.
“Yes it was a big total, but I still believe we have the batsmen to chase those sorts of scores.
“We just need to get off to that good start, get our run rate going early and take the game deep.”
Freeman said he was “extremely proud” of the team for making the grand final, but he was determined to make the most of the opportunity.
“It was good to sneak into the finals and give ourselves a chance,” he said after their brilliant semi-final win over Irymple set up the grand final berth.
“Settlers play aggressively and give you a chance. It’s up to us to take them.
“I thought we bowled pretty well and with the way they bat it is either going to work or it’s not, so we don’t need to change too much.
“If it doesn’t go their way, then we are right on top.
“I know we’ve got a team that can win on Saturday.”
