Wodonga’s man-of-the-moment has made a candid admission ahead of the grand final against Lavington.
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“With my pace bowling, I’ll be honest, I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it,” Jack Craig said.
“All I do is bowl it as fast as I can.”
The captain is a unique player in that he bowls pace at first change, before returning with off-spin.
“I played indoor cricket in Melbourne and I bowled pace there,” he said.
“It’s a high-paced game and I felt I’d get a lot more out of it bowling pace in indoor cricket.
“This year we lost Beau Kennedy so I thought I’d try and bowl pace for a little bit.
“I work hard at training on both, the hardest thing’s bowling pace and then going straight to spin.
“The spin, for me, I seem to be able to control that.”
Craig bowled Wodonga to a second successive grand final when he ripped through North Albury.
Defending 212, Wodonga looked shot when outstanding opener Ash Borella and the dangerous David Farrell compiled an aggressive 93-run opening stand.
But the visitors broke the partnership and were able to restrict the rest of the line-up.
“It was a team effort, we all chipped in,” Craig said.
“We didn’t give them anything in the field, it was just unbelievable, we just kept fighting.”
Craig finished with a career-best 7-60 off 21 overs.
The previous week he showed tremendous maturity to strike a patient 90 not out in the semi-final loss to Lavington.
The well-documented tightness of the competition is highlighted by the season’s games between the preliminary finalists.
North won its round two clash against Wodonga with three balls to spare, but Wodonga returned the favour with only two balls left in the round seven one-dayer.
North claimed a one-wicket win in another one-dayer after Christmas, before Wodonga’s 17-run triumph over the weekend.
It was a similar story between Lavington and Belvoir.
Lavington won the first game by a wicket, and posted a two-wicket win in the next one-dayer.
The Panthers scored 201 in the preliminary final, with Belvoir falling short of defending its title when dismissed for 189.
Lavington and Wodonga’s grand final clash at Tallangatta’s Rowen Park this weekend will be the third meeting in the past four games.
Wodonga cruised to a thumping win in the final round, but Lavington scored an impressive victory in the semi-final.