RUSSELLS Creek coach Matt Ansell says the club’s confidence-boosting round one Twenty20 win was the first step in building its credentials in all three formats.
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Creek toppled short-form kings Woodford in Warrnambool and District Cricket Association’s season-opener on Saturday.
Ansell, whose side meets fellow round one winner East Warrnambool-YCW tomorrow, said it was a positive start to a season focused on improvement and consistency.
“What we are trying to do is make our players adaptable to all formats,” he said.
“We’d like to think we’ll transition into the one-day game and then transition into the two-dayers too.
“The tricky part is when we’re into the two-dayers and there are a couple of Twenty20s.”
Ansell said Creek’s first major challenge was consolidating on its 17-run win against the Eels.
He said that gritty performance highlighted his side’s capabilities.
“They have a really top-class fielding team and we didn’t score a lot of runs against them so it was pleasing we were able to go through their main four batters and put them under pressure early,” he said.
“We want to back it up with a good performance.
“We have a lot of young guys in the team and they are stepping up and they have improved our fielding a lot.
Charlie Locke, Sam Younghusband and Liam Brown are three players Ansell has earmarked for more senior opportunities.
“Callum Humphrys was under 17s last year and he got 3/9 last week bowling little mediums,” he said.
East Warrnambool-YCW made the perfect start under new coach Mark Murphy last weekend, recording a nine-wicket win against Wesley-CBC.
Ansell said the Broncos were “made for Twenty20”.
“They are going to be hard to beat,” he said.
