By Marcus Uhe
A series of honest conversations and a lift in training standards is coinciding with improved performances from Narre North in the Dandenong District Cricket Association’s Turf 3 competition.
Having found themselves in promising positions in all four contests to open the Turf 3 season, the newcomers have no wins to show for their efforts, despite already showing immense improvement.
For coach, Kiruba Sathiyaseelan, the improvement has been pleasing, having seen up close the work being put in both at and away from training.
He believes in the talent at the club, with results to be final piece of the puzzle, hoping to arrive in the coming weeks.
“There was a couple of games where we started off really well with the ball and more often than not, we’re getting two or three wickets in the first eight-10 overs, but then we let them get on with it and put on a decent score,” he said of early season performances.
“With our batting we just need to really hone in on getting off to a good start, which we haven’t been, which has been putting pressure on the blokes coming in around six/seven/eight to do the majority of the run scoring.
“The conversations came around in terms of, making sure we capitalise on our starts and making sure we have a clear plan on what we’re trying to execute from a batting perspective as well.
“The reality is, we spoke to guys and we told them that if you only train on Tuesday and Thursday, it’s probably not enough; if we want to convert 20s and 30s into big scores and with the ball if we want to take multiple wickets, we just need to do a bit more work outside.
“Having that belief as well – each week, despite the results we’ve had, we’ve always been in the game, we just needed to put in a little more effort during the week and then focus on the things that aren’t coming off.
“The last time they played division three, they went winless, so in between then, there’s been some growth and development from players that were playing Turf 3 previously.”
Narre North has the chance to implement what they have been eager to on Saturday following a tremendous first day’s play on Saturday to claim a maiden win of the summer, and a first since moving back to Turf 3.
Facing last season’s runner up in Berwick Springs, a century from Sri Lankan Kamesh Lokuge was the primary contribution in Narre North reaching 7/284 at Berwick Springs Recreation Reserve.
In his third match for the club, the number three came to the crease on the third ball of the day after Harman Sahota bowled Joseph Connell, and hit 104 off 108 balls.
He did the bulk of the scoring in a 115-run stand with Danial Kamil before losing his wicket to Chirath Uralagamage at 3/146.
His coach described the innings as “super”, with the 24-year-old only landing in Australia in recent weeks.
“He played his own game and capitalised on the balls that were there to be hit,” Sathiyaseelan said.
“It’s taken some time to adjust to the quality of the bowlers and the decks we’re getting, but he’s worked pretty hard over the last fortnight.
“He took advantage of the wind on the weekend as well, going one way, so he targeted that throughout his innings but it wasn’t like he was playing irrational or anything like that, he was very technical.
“The scoreboard might look like he was playing his shots quite a bit, but if you watched the game, you’ll know that he just took his time and took all the opportunities that he got.
“We’re expecting a few more (centuries) this year as well – he’s a class above and it was really good to see.
Important cameos from Sathiyaseelan (37) and Kamran Malik (29), as well as 33 extras, pushed Narre North to its defendable total by the close of play.
Fazan Jazoor’s injury put a dampener on a bright day for the club, however, hurting his knee while running between wickets.
Uralagamage and Ethan Marinic both took a pair of wickets each as the two strike bowlers for Berwick Springs, which will need its first team score in excess of 200 next week to avoid falling further back from the top four.
Destructive opener Jackson Marie, however, remains on the sidelines with a finger injury, and won’t contribute for the Titans.
