THE Alchemy All Stars and Metz Jets will make their debut in the Aussie 15s tonight, and both skippers cannot wait to try out Aurora Stadium's drop-in wicket.
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All Stars captain Alex Saunders said he had taken notes about what his side needs to do to adapt to the newest form of the game.
``It was interesting to see how a few of the guys batted (last week), so I took a few notes down watching them,'' Saunders said.
``We'll look to protect a few of the scoring zones that the others didn't do, such as down at fine leg, so we were lucky we didn't have to play last week, so we could take a look at it.
``We'll also have to make sure our bowlers can bowl to these fields that we set.
``We haven't got as many big names as the other teams have, but we've got a good group of guys that I have played with down in Hobart and down here that I think will gel really well together.''
The All Stars will face off against the Star Bar Slashers, with captain John LeFevre saying the Slashers were keen to prove they weren't a one-man team after Ricky Ponting helped deliver them to a 38-run win with 35 from his 15 balls.
``It was great last week for local cricket, with local cricketers being able to play in front of a crowd like that and put on a good show says a lot about the standard of cricket up here,'' he said.
``He (Ponting) will be a loss to our batting line-up, but we bat pretty deep. Ricky is obviously irreplaceable but hopefully we have enough batting in our squad to cope.''
Scott Driessen said he was expecting ``fast and exciting cricket'' from his Metz Jets, who are aligned with George Town, against the Sporties Legends.
``It will be about getting used to the new format and the rules, and getting our head around the tactics that we will need going into it,'' he said.
``I'm confident that our players will be able to adapt to this form of cricket, which I think is really good initiative.''
Sporties Legends captain Jade Selby said his team would be looking to tone down its aggression after it played too many rash shots in the loss to the Slashers.
``We know we don't have to slog every ball, that you can still play a good innings in only 15 balls and get 25 or 30 without slogging everything,'' Selby said.
``We just have to make sure we bowl to our field, which we were able to drag it back last week, and fielding is important, as we know after we dropped a couple of catches.''
Selby said batting last on that wicket had an impact, with any batting seemingly more difficult due to dew on the ground.
Former Launceston paceman David Tueon is set to make his debut for the Legends.
The Aussie 15s sees the six NTCA clubs aligned to a Launceston hotel, with players coming from the NTCA, TCL, Cricket North West and Southern cricket competitions.
It includes experimental rules, including having 15 players on each side, 15 overs per innings, no more than three overs per bowler, scoring zones, 10 metre run-ups for bowlers and retirement for batsmen after 15 balls, although they can return later in the innings.
CRICKET FACTS
WHAT: Aussie 15s tournament, week 2.
WHERE: Aurora Stadium, Launceston.
WHEN: Tonight, 6pm Metz Jets v Sporties Legends, 8.10pm Alchemy All Stars v Star Bar Slashers.
HOW MUCH: Spectator entry is free.