Brierly-Christ Church 'competitive' but aiming for better results, vying to channel Twenty20 form

The Bulls have been largely competitive in one-day fixtures but have just one victory from six games in 45-over cricket.

But their Twenty20 success has been a shining light.

Rooke's men stunned pool favourite Russells Creek to advance to the competition's semi-finals this past Saturday and will play off for one of two Sungold Cup places.

"It's been a bit of an interesting start to the year and I think the form shows we haven't had the most brilliant start to the year," he said.

"To get a couple of wins on Saturday and then put our best foot forward and go into the semis, potentially having another crack at Sungold is exciting.

"It's nice for the group. It's a nice little reward for the work we're putting in. We haven't got the results on the field as yet so to get those Twenty20 results has been nice."

Rooke felt the Bulls weren't far from winning form and had been in the hunt in all but the Russells Creek fixture - a match they lost by 192 runs - in round one.

They've been encouraged with strong form from veteran all-rounder Nathan Murphy, skipper Mark Murphy and batsman Zac Brooks.

"You look at every game apart from the first game where Creek belted us to no end, we've had probably just lapses," he said.

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"We've had a 10 or 15 over period where we've dropped off in the field or lost clumps of wickets and let them get on top.

"You put those together and it's not going to win you too many games. We finally clicked in that West Warrnambool game and Saturday obviously clicked for us. It's just getting the boys to perform consistency."

He told The Standard the club would strategically plan out its training schedule over the festive period.

"It's a tricky one because probably the break has come at a good time over Christmas to reset in the one-day comp but in saying that, after Saturday, you don't want to lose too much momentum," Rooke said.

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