BEN Compton points to the most feared bowling attacks in cricket history when speaking about building success with Merrivale.
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Compton, a top-order batsman, has forged a damaging opening partnership with co-captain Jeremy Burgess but has labelled Merrivale’s young bowling brigade as its greatest weapon.
While the South African import doesn’t expect the Tigers’ attack to emulate Dennis Lillie, Jeff Thomson, Michael Holding or Wasim Akram, he believes line and length are vital for the Tigers’ Twenty20 flag chances.
“I’m a firm believer in a good bowling attack winning cricket matches,” Compton said.
“I think if you look throughout history, the best cricket teams in the world – Australia, the West Indies – they’ve all had really good bowling line-ups.
“I’m not comparing ours to them, but I think we’ve got great bowlers and that’s a strength of our team. I think we can go far.”
The 23-year-old, who is based in London and hopes to push for a first-class berth with English county side Durham in the summer, said bowling was particularly vital in the Twenty20 format.
Merrivale is in the hunt for a Warrnambool and District Cricket Association Twenty20 grand final berth, sitting third in the Hopkins conference.
Victory over Nirranda on Saturday – coupled with a Russells Creek triumph over Brierly-Christ Church – would lift the Tigers into the short-form semi finals.
Compton revealed he was confident in his chemistry with Burgess, with the duo averaging 52 and 47 respectively as an opening pair.
“I think we complement each other well. Jeremy is quite aggressive and I like to bat a little more (conservatively), so I think we’ve got a good balance,” he said.
“I’ve had to become more positive with my batting (in Twenty20 cricket). It’s worked well because Jeremy likes to hit boundaries, and I can just work the ball around and then go harder later in the innings.
“It’s just about hitting the bad ball to the boundary and making the most of it when it arises.”
Compton has blasted 203 runs from six matches to date.