COACH Peter Hickey has labelled Killarney’s showdown with Purnim as its most important match of the Grassmere Cricket Association regular season.
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Killarney is third on the GCA A grade ladder entering day one of its round 11 clash at Killarney, one match behind pacesetters Panmure and Purnim.
Victory will lift the Crabs to second, possibly first depending on other results. But defeat would leave them facing a major battle to finish in the top two.
“It’s certainly the match of the season for us so far. It’s pretty tight at the top in the GCA,” Hickey said.
“A win this round puts us right up there looking for a top-two position and a home final.
“Drop it and you lose touch with Panmure and Purnim.
“It’s a must win for us. We certainly feel we’re competitive with the top-two teams and we do play well on our home ground.”
Hickey said Killarney would field its strongest side since Christmas.
Only Jamie Poumako, who top scored with 51 against Mailors Flat last round, is unavailable.
Heightening his optimism is the side’s form entering the match. Killarney kicked off the new year with victory in the GCA Twenty20 tournament.
The Crabs have three wins from four two-day matches, including a dominant triumph against the Jets despite missing six players due to a wedding. “We dropped one to Hawkesdale which was a bit of a surprise.
“We had a form slump just before Christmas,” Hickey said.
“Post-Christmas we haven’t had our full team together.We’ve had a few absences. This week will be the first week where we’ll be pretty close to full strenghth.”
Hickey anticipated a similarly close match to the Killarney-Purnim encounter in November, which his side won with five balls to spare.
Shaun Griffin made 78 to help the Bulls post 160. But Anthony Martin’s 63 and cameos from Jeremy Sheehan and Joel Henry got the Crabs home.
“We play Purnim and Panmure over the next month. We need to beat them both,” Hickey said.
“If we don’t, it’ll be a challenge. We’d be relying on them to lose to other teams (for us) to look at a top-two spot.”
In other GCA A grade matches, Yambuk and Wangoom will continue their fight for a finals berth at Yambuk Recreation Reserve.
The loser of the match will likely fall out of finals contention, particularly if Hawkesdale can upset Panmure at Panmure Recreation Reserve.
In the other match, Grassmere takes on winless Mailors Flat at Purnim Recreation Reserve.
