By Tyler Lewis
Despite suffering a loss in Tuesday night’s Vic Super Slam semi-final at the hands of the impressive St Kilda unit, it’s evident this Swans outfit is travelling in the right direction under Will Carr.
The Swans made it through to the final four of the Victorian Premier Cricket twenty-20 competition through the wild-card entry, being the second best performer of the overall three divisions (west, central and east).
Unluckily for the Swans, they drew St Kilda, a side which across both formats are yet to suffer a defeat.
Skipper Michael Wallace won the toss and elected to bat, and rightfully so, his group is batting tremendously at the minute.
Wallace himself got his group off to a flyer, belting 48 from just 35 deliveries, flaying the ball to all parts of Harry Trott Oval.
While Wallace made it look easy, his counterparts struggled to strike the ball so cleanly, posting 8/143 from its allocated overs.
The visitors were able to land a blow early, with Callum Dodson removing Tom Russ with just 15 runs on the board, but unfortunately for the Swans, it brought former Dandenong batter, Ed Newman to the crease.
Newman has relished in his move to St Kilda and it showed once again on Tuesday night.
The supremely talented left-hander crunched an unbeaten 70 from 50 balls, a 69 minute onslaught to which he found the rope four times and cleared it on three occasions.
And while Newman took the game away from the Swans and registered what appears to be a somewhat regulation win, the Swans were presumably only 15 runs, or a wicket short of winning the match and heading into the final next week.
The win for the Saints may also come as a bitter pill to swallow for the Swans cross-region rivals, Dandenong, who lost Newman at the conclusion of last year.
Across all formats, Newman’s best aggregate season at Dandenong was 529 at 31, but after just 11 hits in his new threads, the destructive batter already has 432 runs and has passed double-figures in all bar two hits.
