THE confidence that Tasmania had entering the domestic one-day cup has not evaporated after successive losses, according to George Bailey, with the Tigers skipper still of the belief the state can have an impact in the competition.
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After thumping Queensland by nine wickets to open their account, Tasmania has since dropped matches to the Cricket Australia XI (by three runs) and NSW (by eight wickets) to sit fourth on the table.
Bailey said there was plenty to learn from the loss to a Blues side that featured an XI of players with international experience, powered by Mitch Starc (5-39) and Nic Maddinson (118 from 118).
‘‘Against NSW, I think we saw exactly where we are in one day cricket and they showed us exactly where we need to improve.,’’ Bailey told Fairfax Media on Tuesday.
‘‘It showed our best is good enough.
‘‘But to perform consistently, we just have to improve across all three disciplines – batting, bowling and fielding.
‘‘In many respects I was excited about the result, and a lot of guys would have realised it is not unattainable to where we want to get.
‘‘From my point of view, I would be thinking our guys would be still feeling confident, as Dom Michael [54 from 58 against the Blues] batted as well as I’ve seen against a world-class attack, while Xavier Doherty [2-38 from nine overs] bowled well, and Tim Paine and Ben Dunk have batted well [in the tournament].
‘‘So it is just a matter of us putting that all together, and the beauty of it is that with NSW so far out in front, it is about us just bunking down and
fighting for second or third spot.
‘‘And the three games we have left will be against teams hunting for those spots as well.’’
This will start against South Australia (who sit third with a 2-1 record) at Blacktown on Wednesday.
‘‘We will have to be at our best to beat them, with everyone contributing.
‘‘Looking at the scores [at that ground], it looks like it is pretty hard work batting and you just have to be patient and when you do get in you have to be greedy in working your butt off to make sure you are a big contributor, and bowling sides need to be disciplined and build and maintain pressure.’’
Bailey said he felt he was hitting the ball as well as he ever has, with scores of 48 and 51 so far.
‘‘I’ve had to work hard to get into my innings, and then getting out when it starts to kick in for the best time to bat near the end of the innings, which has been frustrating.’’
Wednesday’s game will be broadcast on GEM from 10am.
