NAMING a near full strength side, Orange will enter Sunday’s Mitchell Cricket Council colts decider against a red-hot Mudgee looking to finish the representative cricket season on a high.
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Orange was battered from pillar to post on its last endeavour to Mudgee for a colts clash, suffering a 133-run defeat after openers Cam Cox and Ryan Kurtz plundered a 300-run opening stand in the major semi-final a fortnight ago.
However, chief of selectors Steve Ryan believes with a close to full-strength line-up now at Orange’s disposal, his side will make the trip “ready for battle”.
“They’re looking forward to the rematch with Mudgee,” Ryan said.
“They gave us a bit of a flogging over there last time but that wasn’t our full-strength side. Aside from James being out, we’re going over there with our best 11.”
As Ryan mentioned, Orange will be without Western Zone colts representative James Ryan.
Ryan is suffering from a shoulder injury but in his absence during last Sunday’s preliminary final against Bathurst, Orange covered the loss brilliantly to record a resounding seven-wicket thumping of Bathurst in a rain-marred 40-over contest.
Bottling the confidence built following the side’s best performance of the summer, Ryan said a colts decider victory would be the cherry on top of a re-building phase for Orange cricket.
“This has been the core group of boys we’ve had together in the 21s for the last couple of seasons,” Ryan enthused.
“It’s be nice to be able to top off the work we’ve done together with a win ... finish the year on a high.”
Orange takes on Mudgee on Sunday.
ORANGE: John Warrington, Charlie Litchfield, Cam Williams, Max Dodds, Matt Corben, Toby Polkinghorne, Jake Pauletto, Jono Warren, Andrew Johnson, Sam Nicholls, Braden Riles, Rowan Wilson.
MUDGEE: Troy Kenny (c), Cameron Cox, Ryan Kurtz, Andrew Best, Stuart Fredericks, Hayden Cox, Harry Ottley, Brad Golden, James Ford, Nick Chapman, Luke Norris, Sam Joyce.
