ATTEMPTING to avoid heaping too much pressure on a young outfit, Orange CYMS stand-in skipper Hamish Finlayson says his side will go into tonight’s Royal Hotel Cup blockbuster against Cavaliers wary but confident.
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Replaying what was an abandoned Twenty20 match last Friday night following a bout of wet weather in the lead up, tonight’s CYMS and Cavaliers clash promises to be the match of the 2013-14 Royal Hotel Cup so far.
CYMS haven’t played a Twenty20 match yet this season but boast formidable credentials having made the final of the tournament last summer.
Cavs, too, will be ones to watch.
Coming off a 10-wicket win over Waratahs in the Cup’s opening game of the season, Richie Venner’s team is arguably the form side of the Orange District Cricket Association’s shortest format and it’s for that reason Finlayson is wary.
“We haven’t played Twenty20 for a while and a couple of the young guys in our team haven’t played much Twenty20 cricket at all,” the in-form all-rounder said.
“I don’t know. I wouldn’t have too higher expectation on our side.
“Twenty20 is a funny game but we’ll go into the game confident as always.”
That confidence springs from CYMS unbeaten record through the first nine rounds of the ODCA’s one-day competition, being run prior to the Christmas break.
Finlayson believes a tendency to play the final period of their 40-over matches similar to a Twenty20 bash-and-dash will hold the green and golds in good stead tonight at Wade Park.
“With our 40-over cricket we’ve tried to play really conservatively over the course of the first 20 overs and then treat the next 20 overs a bit like a Twenty20,” he said.
“We’ve got a few players out, Matty Baker and Patty Madden can’t play Wednesday but Sam Dwyer is back and he can hit a ball and so can Todd Murphy.”
Tonight’s Twenty20 clash begins at 6.30pm at Wade Park.
SJS-CYMS and Cavaliers’ under 16s will play in the game’s curtain raiser from 4pm.
CAVALIERS: R Venner (c), J Ryan, L Gough, M Death, M Corben, L Wilson, C Martin, J Doherty, G Martin, M Maybin, B Wright, S Middleton.
CYMS: H Finlayson (c), D Neil, G Koch, A Smith, E Wright, T Murphy, S Dwyer, M Hannelly, J Sharpe, C Novak, N Ashraf, A Dhatt.