Having suffered a shock four-wicket loss to Rochester in round two, Echuca bounced back with an emphatic 145-run win over Tongala last Saturday, and will head into the weekend’s clash with only one result in mind.
“Expecting to win,” was Echuca captain Simon Maddox’s rather matter-of-fact response when asked what was in store this weekend.
“We’re going along okay, but had a chat after last week’s game and feel we’re probably still a little bit rusty. We hadn’t played a practice game and (we’re) not really happy with how we’ve been going about it as a group.
“So hopefully we have a bit of a point to prove playing last year’s grand finalists. (It’s) a big game, looking forward to it, and yeah, we’ve got a fair bit of improving to do. We haven’t been playing our best cricket, that’s for sure.”
Despite two wins from its first three games, Echuca hasn’t been at its sharpest, bowling 21 extras last week against Tongala and 13 the week before against Rochester while also struggling for consistency with the bat.
“We’ve just lost clumps of wickets,” Maddox said.
“We’ve been in really good positions and haven’t capitalised on that; we haven’t had a batsman go really big yet. Curt Townrow and Brendan Moyle have got us off to reasonable starts, and we sort of haven’t capitalised on that.
“Even with our bowling, (we’ve bowled) a lot of extras and sort of as a group had a chat. I wouldn’t say it’s me that’s not happy with it, but as a group, we sort of feel that we’ve still got a few gears and cogs that we can go up, that’s for sure.
“(We) drew a little bit of a line in the sand and hopefully we’ll see an improved performance. We’ve had three weeks now, three weeks to get any footy rustiness out — a lot of our boys play footy as well.
“There’s no more excuses now; we’ve had three weeks of cricket, so we’re hoping we can lift the bar over the next couple of weeks.”
There will be at least one change to Echuca’s side for the heavyweight clash, although Maddox couldn’t confirm who would make way. He said whoever took to the field would face a highly motivated Nondies outfit.
“Charlie Hinks will come back in, but we’re not sure who will go out yet. We’ll have a look on Thursday night and pick a side,” he said.
“Nondies made the grand final last year, so they’ll definitely have a point to prove. They’d like to come out and beat us and show everyone that if they had a chance to bat, they could have chased down our runs.
“We’re expecting a really good encounter, and they’ve been in pretty good form this year, too. They’ve won more than they’ve lost, so we’re looking forward to a really good hit-out and a good test.”
While there are plenty of danger men at Nondies’ disposal, Maddox said Echuca’s focus would be on its own line-up and continuing to refine its game as the season progressed.
“It’s always hard to tell because it’s a new season; we’ve only played three games,” he said.
“They’ve got a few imports; that young kid, (Xavier) Wishart, has been taking wickets opening the bowling, so we’ll need to keep an eye on him.
“But it’s more about us getting our own backyard right. We lost one game last year, one game the year before, and we’ve got a very, very similar squad to what we had.
“Our attitude is if we can get our own backyard right and get the process right, the scoreboard will take care of itself.”
In other games, BLU and Moama will face off in Bamawm, with Moama looking to extend its unbeaten start to four games.
Rochester will host Echuca South, while Tongala and Kyabram Fire Brigade will face off at the Blues’ home ground, with Tonny searching for its first win of the season.
Leitchville-Gunbower will also be seeking its first triumph when it hosts what looks to be a competitive Cooma outfit.
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