Coach's Corner: One to go
Mon, 15 March 2010
We are enormously pleased to have won hosting rights for Wednesday's Sheffield Shield final. We have now given ourselves the best chance to win the final and defend the title we won against the Bulls this time last year at the St Kilda Cricket Ground. Historically, it is a great advantage to have home conditions on and off the field and hopefully that can translate into four or five days of strong, disciplined cricket to top off what has been an excellent year. It was a risk to go into the Tasmanian game with as strong a side as we could muster, rather than taking the option of resting one or two, but the reward of having the home final justified us to go ahead with everything we had. We have a few niggles in the group but the boys have basically got through okay and an extra day off is golden. We'll be further boosted, too, with the return of our captain Cameron White from the New Zealand tour and Chris Rogers after injury. We expect Chris to get up in time. He is such a valuable player for us. It'll mean a couple will miss out, but their chance will come again. We have a nice blend of youthful exuberance and cool, older heads who know their games and compete strongly. Damien Wright has had four or five terrific matches for us since returning and so has Darren Pattinson, who came back early after a broken rib and has been giving it his all in the last month or so. His spell on the final morning on Friday was superb. He and Wrighty have taken more than 50 wickets in the last four or five games to really give us a lift. The hunger is there for us to win this final and that's why players have been prepared to play through some pain. Whitey set the example early on in the season when he was clocked by a short one, but he shook it off and stayed out there. Others have followed his lead. David Hussey and Andrew McDonald have been a cornerstone of the group and deserve enormous credit in our six outrights so far this first-class summer. So, too, does Matty Wade playing his first full season. Like Huss and Ronnie he has been essential to the season we have had. John Hastings now has 60 wickets in all forms of the game this summer. He has been another to stand-up and take his opportunity. Aaron Finch is another to also be maturing rapidly. He showed special skills in the Twenty20 and one-day formats early on and to translate that into first-class runs is an indication of a player likely to be around for a long time. Huss has captained superbly in Cameron's absence and a couple of his centuries have been very special for us. His 170-odd on a difficult wicket last time around against the Queenslanders (in late November) helped us grab that match and last Thursday, his stand with Aaron in that wonderful mid-afternoon session in which they added 200 or so runs helped us cash in on the early momentum set up by the bowlers. We go into Wednesday's game confident of doing well. We do not underrate the Bulls. They always give of their best and we expect a tough encounter. We just hope that our best is better than theirs...
Greg Shipperd, Head Coach of the DEC Bushrangers
