Two teams tipped to be thereabouts come finals in March will go head-to-head on Friday night.
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Hadspen will host Cressy in a Twenty20 showdown from 4.45pm with the Chieftains welcoming back leg-spinner Matt Green and paceman Ashley Smith for the encounter.
Hadspen skipper Liam Reynolds said his side had key areas to work on leading into 40-over fixtures next week, despite solid showings in their loss to Longford and win over Diggers last week.
Bulldogs captain-coach Damian Whybrow said Jake Price, Brody Ling and Jakeb Morris would most likely come into his starting XI, despite last week’s line-up notching up two victories.
“We have been focusing on batting our full overs out. We had to fight right to the end against ACL and it came right down to the last over, then we put a good total (179) on the board against Beauty Point,” he said.
“Hadspen are right up there with the teams to beat, but we will just focus on our game.”
Reigning champion LONGFORD is undefeated so far and will come up against Premier League newcomer Legana at home on Saturday.
Country Tigers captain-coach Josh Adams said the Durhams were a dangerous “unknown” with a solid bowling attack. Longford’s Trent Spencer (hamstring) will be replaced by Scott Graham, while opening bowler Nathan Van Noord and all-rounder Amal Ranawaka will play for Legana.
“We will come out pretty hard and give Longford our best,” Legana captain Aaron Dusautoy said.
The winless DIGGERS will play a double-header at Hagley Oval on Saturday against ACL and Beauty Point.
Bluebacks captain-coach John Kedey said he is wary of the Diggers, who “go hard at it from the get-go”.
“Getting early wickets for us will be important and that has probably been the downside in these T20s so far,” Kedey said.
“We need to be able to knock-off the top order early and break through the middle order… [and] without batting we will look to do what we did well last year and that is be positive and look to score off every ball.”
Kedey will miss for ACL with bowler Ash Batty and wicketkeeper Josh Towie to come back in.
Beauty Point coach Rob Crane is unavailable but said his bowlers needed to show some improvement.
“We had too many extras and loose ball against Cressy...however, our batting has been pretty good and we look pretty good heading to the 40-over stuff,” Crane said.