Greater Northern Raiders: squad without studs as finals push begins

Premier League sides will be somewhat depleted of their all-stars who will be playing in the WNCL. Coming off a bye, the girls in orange will face New Town in a match in Westbury on Sunday.

While his side dominated the Bucks in a seven-wicket victory last time they met, Raiders coach Darren Simmonds said the sides would be vastly different this time.

"We played probably one of our best games of cricket against New Town last time but that counts for little going into this game," he said.

"After not performing how we would have liked in our previous match against Clarence, we'll be looking to perform really strongly in the three facets of the game.

"We talked about that loss pretty strongly after the game ... one of our focusses will be knuckling down with the bat and forming good partnerships and getting a good score."

Keeper Emma Manix-Geeves will be one of the key players missing from the squad this weekend as she makes the twelfth member of the Tigers after a great season for the Raiders.

"We'll have to change a few things in our batting order because Emma, Sash [Moloney] and Corinne [Hall] have been high on our list so we'll look to change that," Simmonds said.

Sascha Lowry will be wicket-keeper.

The Raiders sit second on the ladder below Clarence, whose dominant white-ball prowess has secured them a one day series final berth.

"The second spot's up for grabs with two games to go," Simmonds said.

"The great thing with us is that destiny's in our own hands. We play the two other sides [New Town, North Hobart] ... we've earned that position but it's important that we can finish off these two games."