General News
7 March, 2025
The stats all point to a Kingower victory
By GARY WALSH ALL THE key statistics point to a comfortable Kingower win when the team meets Wedderburn Band in the Upper Loddon Cricket Association grand final at Arnold on Saturday. But, as Mark Twain, wrote, quoting Benjamin Disraeli, “There...
By GARY WALSH
ALL THE key statistics point to a comfortable Kingower win when the team meets Wedderburn Band in the Upper Loddon Cricket Association grand final at Arnold on Saturday.
But, as Mark Twain, wrote, quoting Benjamin Disraeli, “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”
Let’s examine the figures, and we’ll see on Saturday whether they lie.
The Gower has four of the top 10 run-scorers for the season, including the top two, Jayden Leach (483) and Matt Rowe (435).
Wedderburn’s top scorer is opener Brad Holt, with 186 runs ranked 11th in the competition.
Remarkably, Leach and Rowe are also top of the bowling charts, with 32 and 16 wickets respectively.
The grand finalists have nine of the 10 top wicket-takers for the season, with Kingower boasting five, including four of the top five, and the Band providing four.
It all suggests the grand final, to be played at Arnold, is Kingower’s to lose, but form is often thrown out of the window under the pressure of a decider.
What the figures do tell, however, is the importance of Kingower’s top-order batting, and the challenge Wedderburn’s bowlers have before them.
The Band brings a vastly experienced bowling group to the table, with Adam Postle, Will Holt and Danny Benaim among the top 10 bowlers for the season.
They face a monumental task against a batting lineup of Leach, Rowe, Will Deason, Kyle Simpson, Blake Pickles, Lachlan Dejong and Ben Rose, among others.
Wedderburn’s players will also need to bat above themselves against a Kingower attack headed by Leach, who has taken his wickets at eight runs apiece, and features spinner Pickles, who is averaging an amazing 4.5 with the ball and has been a regular partnership breaker.
Incidentally, Pickles has only batted three times but is averaging a competition-best 61 on top of his bowling exploits.
The teams have met three times this season, with Wedderburn inflicting Kingower’s only loss, way back in October in a T20 clash, when the Band skittled their opponents for 66.
Kingower got revenge in the final of the T20 series, winning the Loddon Herald Cup, and they also beat the Band in late January in a two-day match in which Leach took a stunning 7-26.
All three matches were played on the Market Square turf, with one other game scheduled to be played at Kingower abandoned due to rain.