By Marcus Uhe
A disappointed Braydon Hillman still has “absolute faith” in his playing XI at Berwick Sprigs despite yet another poor showing from the Titans on Saturday against ladder leaders Fountain Gate in Turf 3 of the Dandenong District Cricket Association.
A side with high expectations coming into the season after last summer’s run to the grand final is clinging to fourth place and could slip out of the top four once again (pending other results) with only 47 runs to protect against the Gators.
The rampant competition benchmark is halfway to the required total, having needed only 60 overs to roll the Titans on a lively Berwick Springs Reserve wicket.
From 7/26, Radomir Badzoka, Ethan Marinic and Harman Sahota showed the patience and resilience their top order did not, digging in to spare their side the humiliation of a first-innings loss on day one.
Asadullah Jabbar Khil grabbed 5/13 wickets and Jasdeep Singh 4/36 in a devastating new ball spell that put the home side on the back foot immediately.
Openers Riley Hillman (zero) and Jackson Marie (two) fell within three balls of one-another in Jabbar Khil’s first over, with numbers three and four, in Braydon Hillman and Shalika Karunanayake making three and six respectfully.
Braydon Hillman, the Titans’ captain, diagnosed a failure in execution as the primary area of concern, having missed an opportunity against what he deemed to be a favourable match-up.
“Our boys, we didn’t dig in, we didn’t fight,” he said.
“We spoke about batting time at the start of the day and it just didn’t happen.
“Losing Riley (Hillman) and Jack (Marie) early exposed us through the middle and with not having Archit Vora, we got exposed through the middle.
“Their pressure was really good and they got the most out of the wicket.
“That first hour, there was a lot going on, I haven’t seen a wicket like that in the first hour in a while – not making excuses, but they got everything they could out of that wicket when the ball was new.”
Singh’s speed and Jabbar Khil’s movement through the air made for the “perfect bowling partnership” in the eyes of the skipper, who lasted more than 10 overs at the wicket in the eye of the storm.
Berwick Springs came into the season with an aim to disperse the load of batting further amongst its top order after the reliance on Marie last season became a chink in their armour.
Despite Marie’s injury that ruled him out of much of the first half of the summer, the ambition has failed to materialised, with just two batters making more than 200 runs through 10 rounds of competition.
The numbers tell the story, and save for an outright win over lowly Doveton last week, the Titans would be on the outside of the top four looking for a way into the finals mix.
But with continuity in the playing XI that took them to the brink last summer, Braydon Hillman does not believe all hope is lost – not only in round 11, but for the remainder of the campaign.
He feels that no team will want to draw his side in a finals match up should they make it, with confidence that the form that has eluded them to this point in the summer will come.
“One bad week doesn’t write off a season,” he said.
“We’ve had a few more bad weeks than I would have liked and the belief is as high as anything.
“We spoke about how we have no one else to blame but ourselves for putting ourselves in this situation and it is very disappointing but you try not to harp on the negatives too much.
“On another day a few of those could have beat the outside edge and I think you see a lot of the time where you’ll be bowling for an hour and you won’t grab an edge, and the other batter can be playing and missing for 10/15 overs – we just found the edges.
“It was disappointing but it was a bad day and you can’t write your season off because of a bad day.
“We definitely have belief that if we can’t get it done in the first innings, we can make something happen in the second innings.
“It hasn’t gone the way we would have liked but we still have absolute faith that we’re the best side in this league – we haven’t shown it yet but we still have the faith.”
For the second week running, the Gators were not forced to rely on the competition’s leading spinner, Surya Pratap, who only took one wicket.
The Gators resume their chase at 2/47 next week, after Sahota grabbed two quick wickets before stumps.
