ALL eight TCL Premier League clubs are keen to begin their 40-over matches following an interrupted start to the season.
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Last week’s final round of Twenty20 games was washed out and rescheduled for November but ACL coach John Kedey said his charges are excited heading into their opening full-length fixture in the top-flight.
The Bluebacks face Diggers at University Oval and Kedey is predicting a tight contest.
“The expectation is for us to be competitive,” he said.
“There has been no continuity in cricket so far… and the Diggers are a little unknown to us in terms of their competitiveness and how they go about it.
“These are the type of games we need to win if we want to be up in the top echelon this year.”
ACL will be without captain Sean Barry, while Ben Stonehouse is set to make his club debut.
Diggers captain-coach Paul Fruin said Josh Jordan and Chris Collins would play.
“We will be focused on putting value on our wicket, building partnerships and bowling good line and lengths,” Fruin said.
“We are both in that middle rung of clubs where every win is vital as a few clubs will be fighting for that third and fourth spot come season’s end.”
HADSPEN will host the Tigers in a battle for the Toxfree Cup.
Chieftains captain Liam Reynolds said his starting XI would remain unchanged from their opening shorter-format games as they look to retain the annual trophy.
“It will be good to get out onto our home ground,” he said. “The Tigers have lost a fair few players over the pre-season but their form over T20s has been good – it should be a good challenge.
“We must execute all aspects of the game well.”
Reynolds said he thought Hadspen were a well-rounded group with a variety of bowling options.
Tigers coach Matt Devlin said this week presented a good test for his young players.
“I’ll be encouraging the boys to continue on with their attitude and to bat the full 40 overs,” Devlin said.
“We are hoping the boys can keep working on things we have trained for during the off-season.”
Assistant coach Leigh Sheppard, captain Luke Richards, Zane Brown and Nathan Huston will come back into the line-up that won both its T20 matches two weeks ago.
CRESSY captain-coach Jono Goss said his side would be close to full-strength with an entire squad available for selection. Goss said Cressy played their spacious home ground well.
“We will need a solid all-round performance, if we do that we should go alright,” he said.
“Beauty Point are premiership contenders and this is a good starting point for us to see where we are at.”
Beauty Point captain Beau Hills and Brennan Creswell will miss the match with several youngsters being given the opportunity to perform.
Hills said club champion Rob Eltringham’s move interstate would be a big loss but was confident the club had recruited well to fill the void.
“We don’t know much about Cressy but we are up for the challenge,” Hills said.
“Jason Savage and Creswell will be a key for us this year and we have managed to pick up fast bowler Geoff Stick, which is very handy.”
TREVALLYN run into reigning champions Longford at home.
Longford captain-coach Josh Adams said opening batsman Shannon Rumbel was still struggling with illness, which would rule him out for a “few more weeks.”
“It’s eleven verses eleven on the day and we are aiming to put 80 overs together and kickoff our 40 over season with a win,” he said.
ROUND 4
- Trevallyn v Longford
- Hadspen v Tigers
- Cressy v Beauty Point
- ACL v Diggers