Swans sail into finals

By Justin Robertson
DESPITE a middle order collapse, Casey-South Melbourne Swans managed to hang on for a comfortable four-wicket win against Ringwood to book a quarter final berth this Saturday against local rivals Dandenong at Casey Fields.
At 1/188, the Swans looked to be cruising and heading toward a massive win with Jake Best on 105 and Jolyon Leaver on 75, but the loss of 5/34 sent nervous shivers down the backs of the team. English import Peter Trego (41 not out) held his nerve at the end and steered the home side to an otherwise easy win in the end.
Swans coach Mark Ridgway said, although there were a few scary moments, his side always had control of the result.
“When you have the opposition by the throat you don’t let them go,” he said.
“Losing those wickets, It sent a shudder through the camp and that was the only downside for what was an almost perfect game for us.”
Having been set a target of 250 for the win, Ridgway knew his team could knock off the runs in the 91 overs.
“We controlled the game last week when we had them 7/220 off 100 overs. Certainly that was the start of having the game under control,” he said.
“And then we bowled beautifully Saturday morning and got them 2/20 and really, a target of 250 off 91 overs was never going to be enough with our batting line up.”
Ridgway was full of praise for Best and Leaver as they catapulted the Swans to a dominant position and admitted he could be a “hard marker” on the team and their performance.
“They were both outstanding but should have won us the game and been there at the end,” he said. “Losing quick wickets puts pressure on the rest of the batting line-up coming in.”
This week will see a new challenge for the Swans, as they take on Dempsey’s Panthers without key Victorian players Matthew Wade, Damien Wright and skipper Jayde Herrick.
“In any final it’s fifty-fifty. Dandenong have had an outstanding season – obviously they haven’t performed as well as they’ve liked since Christmas but they’ve had a good year and deserve to be in the finals,” he said.
“But I think we learnt a few lessons from last year’s finals, and how to cope with finals pressure.”
English import Peter Trego will be available for the match, but is expected to fly back to England on Monday, meaning the Swans will be without the star batsmen if they qualify to the next stage of finals.
He has clobbered 481 runs at an average of 43.1 so far this year.
But Ridway said the ball is firmly in Dandenong’s court.
“They’ve got to get 10 wickets to win the game, so the pressure is on them to get those wickets- if they don’t get them they don’t win the game,” he said.
“We’ll go out with our same normal game plan and treat it like it’s any other game. It was a quarter final game for us last weekend, we had to win to get through to the finals and I think we showed when the pressure was applied we did a pretty good job.”