CAW Provincial mid-season review: Albury, Belvoir, Corowa and East Albury

ALBURY: 2^nd (W7 D3 L2)

THE STORY SO FAR: Albury find themselves in uncharted waters after making their best ever start to a provincial season. Six straight wins suggested the T20 format suited Ross Dixon's new-look side, with the club boasting far greater depth after some serious recruiting in the off-season.

Hard-hitting opener and co-coach Alex Popko has led from the front again, scoring 249 runs and becoming only the second Albury player to rack up 100 first-grade appearances.

A crazy game against Tallangatta, when two Super Overs failed to separate the sides, halted their momentum and recent defeats against Lavington and Wodonga have served as a reminder that there is still plenty of room for improvement with both bat and ball.

Indian medium-pacer Shan Bhaiya has been the signing of the season, debuting in round seven with 5-9 and racing to 20 wickets, while Dixon, Kade Brown, Mani Singh and veteran Jerim Hayes have spun their way to a combined 39.

INSIDE VIEW: "Having made the prelim the last couple of years, our mindset is trying to go one step further. I still don't feel like we've hit our straps, we're playing at maybe 70 percent," captain Ross Dixon said.

"If we're going to go the distance, we need to bat for longer periods of time, focusing more on partnerships. We've played two 50-over games so far and haven't batted our overs, which is a real frustration.

"Partnerships is the key with the ball as well, line and length, doing the basics well and building pressure. We've been a lot more aggressive, which is great, but sometimes we need to take a step back, be a bit more disciplined, wait out passages of play and be prepared to grind sides down."

BELVOIR: 8^th (W4 D2 L6)

THE STORY SO FAR: After a challenging start, the Eagles soar into Christmas on a high after knocking off flag favourites North Albury in the final round of the year.

Matt Jaensch stole the headlines with his stunning 7-22 but it's been a good collective effort with the ball throughout; Lachie McMillan, Dave Perkins, Zac Simmonds and Julian Butters providing an even spread of wickets.

Belvoir's batting has let them down at times and only Kaiden Withers has scored runs consistently. The young opener known as 'Buddha' flourished in the T20 format, starting with a half-century and scoring almost 200 runs in the first five rounds.

New recruit Joe Cooke is clicking into gear and has 156 to his name.

INSIDE VIEW: "We haven't played fabulous cricket in the first half of the season," captain Drew Cameron admitted.

"But we've beaten the flag favourites and the unbeaten side (North), last year's premiers (Lavington) and Wodonga, who we think are up there with the best sides in the comp.

"It gives us confidence that if we can get our batting back to where it should be, we can beat anyone on our day. Bowling's never been our issue, batting is our issue.

"We changed that a little bit against North Albury, it was pretty hard batting but not giving your wicket up and not losing cluster wickets quickly helps to stem the momentum and we did that in patches."

COROWA: 6^th (W4 D3 L5)

THE STORY SO FAR: Last season's club champions have zig-zagged between brilliance and mediocrity and their position in the middle of the ladder reflects that combination of extremes.

A young playing group took a while to adjust to the shorter form of the game, failing to reach 120 in any of their T20s but showing plenty of fight attempting to defend small totals.

Rolled for just 68 by Albury, they had the home side 6/35 at one stage and then took nine North Albury wickets in another low-scoring game, eventually edged out on both occasions.

Mark Athanitis has shown his class with the ball, taking 13 wickets at 9.38, and Corowa should have the experienced Dan Athanitis and Nick Grant available on a more regular basis in the second half of the season.

INSIDE VIEW: "Ideally we'd be going in with more wins than losses but that's the way the cookie crumbles," coach Jarryd Hatton said.

"We'll go back to the drawing board over the break and come back a lot stronger in the new year.

"I don't mind T20, I've played a fair bit of it, but for everyone else in the group, it was new and we probably took a couple of weeks to get going.

"Bowling's always our strength and we knew that if we could get 110 to 120 on the board, we should be able to defend it. We did at times but it was a new format for a lot of our boys and it was difficult to get going.

"Our good is really good but there's too much of a gap in our performances. We need to find a middle stomping ground where we can fight and get ourselves back into games."

ALSO IN SPORT

EAST ALBURY: 4^th (W5 D3 L4)

THE STORY SO FAR: Dramatic finishes became standard for the Crows during the first half of the season, with two Super Overs kick-starting their campaign in remarkable fashion.

They came back from the dead against St Patrick's in round nine, scoring 55 off the last four overs to force a tie with Kris Milosta's move down the order looking inspired as he blasted 28 off just 10 deliveries.

That performance seemed to galvanise East Albury, who successfully chased in four of their last five games going into the break.

Captain and coach Brett Davies has often referenced their 'blue collar' attributes and the self-branded team without superstars will need to draw on those reserves after Christmas having lost Coby and Liam Fitzsimmons to Victorian Premier Cricket.

Their departure will open the door for the likes of Rory Parnell and Max Diffey to play a more prominent role.

Matt Tom has hit the ground running since joining from Lavington, scoring 256 runs at 32 including two half-centuries, while Miles Hemann-Petersen's fine work behind the stumps (eight stumpings and seven catches) has been complemented by the 17-year-old already reaching 200 with the bat.

INSIDE VIEW: "There's no superstars amongst us, we're all blue-collar cricketers," coach Brett Davies said.

"To have that grit when it really matters shows how tight we are as a group and that's what gets you over the line in tough moments, doing it for each other.

"It's your responsibility to get the bloke next to you up and about and ready to go.

"The position we're in is about right. We haven't played brilliant cricket at all but at the same time, we're in the top half of the table.

"We're excited about the second half of the year, batting deep, making some big scores and letting our bowlers and fielders do the rest."

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