Unless he’s managed to work his way onto Santa’s naughty list, there’s a few presents Orange City stand-in skipper Ed Morrish is hopeful of getting for Christmas and there’s one thing he desperately wants, but it’s not something he’ll find under a tree or in a stocking.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Runs.
Not runs coming from his own bat either, although he admitted that’d be nice too, he wants to see his top order fire in a big way in Saturday’s final Orange District Cricket Association round before the holiday break.
From a holistic perspective, the Warriors haven’t been bad with the bat.
They’ve passed 150 in three of four digs and the one time they didn’t they were only chasing 128 to win.
But there’s not been much consistency from the side’s top order, outside Shaun Grenfell, who leads the ODCA run-scorer’s list with 171 at 42.
Orange City’s top six has combined for more than 100 just once this summer.
“I’d love to see some more of the top order fire, for sure,” Morrish said, who is actually Orange City’s next best with the willow with 87 despite batting in the lower order.
“We haven’t been as bad as some sides, but there’s a few times we’ve relied on Shauny or needed the tail to wag.
“No one is batting badly, everyone’s contributed at some point, we just need to see more people scoring runs at the same time and I think that comes down to building a few partnerships.
“We’ve got a good chance to do that against CYMS on the weekend going into the Christmas break, to do that and grab another win is the goal, that’d push us into the competition lead too and going into 2018 on top would be the perfect situation.”
The competition-leading CYMS are just one point clear of Orange City, and are actually in a very similar place as a side. With bumper attacks neither side has any issue bowling teams out, but the green and golds have had batting woes of their own.
Like the Warriors, CYMS have only failed to reach 150 once but the side’s top six has also combined for more than 100 on a single occasion.
“Struggling to score runs isn’t a problem limited to one team, most teams have them around Orange every season,” Morrish said.
“But CYMS have a lot of dangerous guys in that top order and I think Hamish (Finlayson, CYMS’ skipper) said it not long ago that they’ve all fired at some stage this season.
“I guess they’re like us in that way, we’ll just have to work hard and bowl well to make sure it doesn’t come together for them this weekend.
“We love getting one over CYMS where we can, and they’re the same with us too. It’s a good rivalry, they’re always tough games and we’re looking forward to it.”
Saturday’s clash, at Country Club Oval, kicks off at 1pm.
Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
