By David Nagel
CASEY-South Melbourne’s drought with the willow continued on Saturday when they were routed for just 80 runs by Richmond in round six of Premier cricket.
The Swans were chasing the Tigers’ formidable 9/342 from week one and were never in the hunt after a disastrous start put paid to any threat of a contest.
Swans coach Mark Ridgway said the first session on Saturday summed up his team’s season.
“Look, it’s a new ball wicket, you need to get through the first hour then it’s not too bad to bat on, we’re just not getting through to that stage,” Ridgway said.
“But it hasn’t just been bad starts; we’ve been bad at the top, bad in the middle and bad at the end but we’ll keep plugging away, we won’t give up.”
The home team were bowled out in just 40 overs and never recovered after being 4/21 early in the first session; a win was never a possibility from that stage on but it’s not all about winning at this stage for Ridgway.
“I would have been happy if we were 6/250 at stumps to be honest, we just need to start to do something, bat a day out and build from there.” he said.
“I don’t think the bowling’s that good through the competition that we should be getting rolled for under 100 but we’re just not coping at the moment.”
Clive Rose (32) and Roshan Livera (19) tried to build a middle-order partnership but once they went the white flag went up once again, the Swans losing their last five wickets for 17 runs. To top things off for the Swannies, in-form bowler Ash Perera had a badly infected toe and couldn’t take his place in the batting line-up and will miss this week’s clash with Geelong.
The home team was asked to bat again by the Tigers and fared better the second time around. Rohan Blandford and Sam Hughes put on a 62-run opening stand to snuff out any thoughts the Tigers had of an outright victory. The Swans finished on 3/119 after 43 overs with Blandford making 36 and Hughes 27. Jolyon Leaver made a solid 26 not out towards the end of the day.
Casey-South Melbourne travels down the highway to Geelong this Saturday for the round seven clash. The Cats have been in ordinary form themselves, not winning a game since round two, so a win is up for grabs for the Swans. Perera will be a big loss for the visitors but his absence creates another opportunity for the Swans to blood some youth.
@BT Sub Sport News:T20 SUNDAY
The Swans played host to St Kilda in the first round of the Twenty20 on Sunday and the visitors won the toss and elected to bat. The Saints made 3/172 from their 20 overs with Shane Maggs the pick of the bowlers with 3/33 off four overs.
In reply, the home team made 8/145 with Jolyon Leaver continuing his not out innings from Saturday with 70 not out. Rohan Blandford with 25 was the next best batsmen.
The Swans next T20 fixture is against Prahran at Toorak Park on 27 November.
