East Albury coach Brett Davies maintains it took just one bat to show what recruit Matt Tom has brought to the club.
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The Lavington premiership player posted a scintillating 71 not out from only 55 deliveries in the last-over loss to grand finalists North Albury.
"He's a classy top order stick and the reason we got him across from 'Lavi' is because we knew we could set up our innings around him," Davies suggested.
"Last year we were probably too Coby Fitzsimmons reliant and getting more class into our top order was priority number one, two and three."
Last year we were probably too Coby Fitzsimmons reliant and getting more class into our top order was priority number one, two and three.
- Brett Davies on Matt Tom
Tom struck nine boundaries in his innings and was the only player to make double figures in the 6-109 - striking 65 per cent of the runs.
"He's deceptive, I think he's really developed his batting over the last few years, traditionally he was an opening bat who could bat 80 overs and score you a hundred, whereas now he can score the big runs in the shorter format, his intent is fantastic," Davies offered.
"The impact he's having on our young blokes, like Miles Hemann-Petersen and Max Diffey is terrific, it's about getting them thinking about their batting and setting up an innings, rather than just blasting from the word go.
"The boundaries at our ground (Alexandra Park) are quite big, they're about 90m straight, so the fact he can get 70-odd of 50-odd balls. I think is a lesson to all our bats, not necessarily boundaries is what it's all about.
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"You can still score at a good strike rate without hitting a heap of boundaries."
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