SHORT-FORM dynamo Mark Murphy is urging Brierly-Christ Church’s bowlers to target three key Merrivale scalps in their pursuit of Twenty20 premiership success.
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Murphy described the wickets of Merrivale’s Josh Stapleton, Jeremy Burgess and Ben Compton as crucial after the trio put the Bulls to the sword in round eight.
“They’re in red-hot form and can be very dangerous,” he told The Standard.
“We have to nullify their scoring shots. I’ve played a lot of cricket against them and know where there strengths are.
“It’s about going through our process and executing what we set out. If they’re good enough to score when we do that, we can’t worry too much. We have to worry about what we can control.”
Murphy’s men are undertaking specialised short-form training as the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association’s return to Twenty20 action edges closer.
The all-rounder, who returned to the Bulls this season after a three-year stint coaching East Warrnambool, said his side was confident in its short-form ability.
“I think we match up well for all formats of the game, but we do happen to like fast-paced cricket,” Murphy said.
“We have some big hitters but bowling is the big thing. We have our bowling plans set in place every time we play and we just have to execute that.
“It’s all down to training and executing plans for us. It’s not just blocking with bat and ball, we actually want to get something out of our training sessions, because you have a different mindset with two-day cricket.
“We have to adjust that back to fit (short-form cricket).”
The Bulls, who lead the Hopkins conference, will all but sew up a Twenty20 cup semi-final berth with victory over Merrivale on Saturday.