General News
10 February, 2020
Camperdown Lakers claim victory over Simpson
CAMPERDOWN captain Steven Fisher is looking for an improved mindset from his young side following their nail-biting win over Simpson on Saturday.
CAMPERDOWN captain Steven Fisher is looking for an improved mindset from his young side following their nail-biting win over Simpson on Saturday.
The third year skipper was disappointed with his side’s mental approach to what he said was an important contest, admitting “we got out of jail” with a one wicket victory.
The Lakers almost made a meal of what should have been an easy triumph, having dismissed Simpson for 105 at S.A. Wright Oval.
But the run chase almost ended in disaster, with Camperdown stumbling from 4/39 to7/90 then 9/104 before Simon Richardson hit the winning runs in the 34th over.
“It was a good result in the end but we probably shouldn’t have let it get that close,” Fisher said.
“We didn’t turn up with the right mindset, we were just a little bit lethargic and our intensity just wasn’t there from the start.”
Fisher said he was quick to observe the flatness within his side and said it took a long time for them to turn their effort.
He credited Henry Moyle (3/29) and Shaluka Silva (2/14) for kick-starting the change, with Moyle taking two wickets in deliveries and Silva constantly applying pressure from the opposite end.
“I just noticed that we weren’t switched on, even before the game in our warm up. And then we went on to bowl 33 wides, our sundries total was massive,” he said.
“But we started to clean up a bit in the second half of our bowling innings. Just before drinks until we bowled them out was a lot cleaner as opposed to how it started.
“We got a wicket at one stage and we spoke about it mid pitch and said we had to get right on top of it which we did.”
While his side was able to clean up its bowling effort, Fisher said his side once again dropped away mentally once it started its batting innings.
But he said he was relieved his players did enough to come away with the points after it looked like they may have fallen just short.
“We just lost wickets in clumps,” he said.
“We’d start to build a good partnership but then we’d lose two or three wickets at a time.
“And we kept losing the bloke who had spent a bit of time at the crease every time, we always ended up with two fresh batsmen at the crease.
“The overs weren’t really a factor and we only ended up getting home by one wicket which isn’t great but a win’s a win.”
The victory pushed Camperdown from fifth into third, 12 points clear of Bookaar, Cobden and Noorat who are all on equal points.
The Lakers are set to take on Cobden at Cobden Recreation Reserve this Saturday before they meet Bookaar the following week in a period Fisher said was season-defining.
He said his side was ready to take on those two clubs but added improvement to the mental side of their game was needed.
“We spoke about that if we turn up the same way we did we’re probably really going to struggle to put wins on the board,” Fisher said.
“The next two weeks are probably two of the most crucial of our season but I feel we’ve done the body of work to be really competitive and to get wins against those sides.”
A win over the Knights will push Camperdown ever so closer to ending their finals hiatus, an outcome Fisher said he was aware of.
“It’s pretty critical for us to beat a team that is 12 points behind us as it currently sits,” he said.
“To be able to put 24 points in between us with two weeks to go is pretty handy and is going to go a long way to us making that final four.”