Knights coach Liam Devlin admitted his side needed a win but the Knights' chances of success at the NTCA No.2 Ground tomorrow have been dealt a blow with in-form batsman and captain Nathan Philip and Tom Coates unavailable due to university exams.

"We're very keen for a win and we'd love to get one because we don't want to be winless after three games," he said.

"We were slightly unlikely last week and there were a couple of dismissals that were unfortunate with balls that kept low but a couple of good balls as well.

"Obviously our batting once again didn't perform well but Nathan (Philip) again played really well and we had a couple of dismissals at untimely situations in the game that didn't help.

"We felt we bowled a little bit looser than what we have been in earlier games and Dane batted well again and got away from us."

Devlin said the absence of Philip and Coates were big losses but he was hopeful that Ben Austen would return after missing last week with injury.

RIVERSIDE is coming off a bye but will be keen to continue its winning form after defeating Launceston in the opening round.

Blues captain-coach Luke Richardson said their focus had been on improving their batting and was hopeful of making another good score after putting 220 on the board in round one.

Richardson will miss with injury with Nathan Van Noord his replacement.

WESTBURY and LAUNCESTON clash at the NTCA No.1 Ground.

The Shamrocks will be keen to continue their winning start to the season after disposing of South last week.

"It was a pretty good start for us last week after having the bye," Westbury captain Dane Anderson said.

"It was good to put a reasonable score on the board and a relatively inexperienced bowling attack did a good job and we hope the boys back up again."

Anderson said his batsmen looked to be in good form but they needed to work more on building partnerships.

Jonathan Chapman will miss with exams with Josh Hills a possible replacement.

LAUNCESTON captain Rowan Smith said he was happy with the way his team was able to get itself back into the contest after Mowbray made a good start with the bat last week.

"Our spinners in particular were able to get us back into the game and restrict Mowbray to a gettable target," Smith said.

"Unfortunately we were 12 runs short with the bat but we weren't far off the mark and it was definitely an improvement from the first week against Riverside."

Smith said Westbury was an all-round class unit and would be hard to beat.

"We need to bowl well especially early and bat well and work to get some partnerships going."

The Lions have been hit hard with player unavailability due to exams and will be without Cameron Lynch, Luke Badham and Ben Humphrey.