A far cry from the Orange team which qualified for the final eight of the competition in season 2010-11, Orange lost both of its President’s Cup ties last weekend, comprehensively.

With two losses from two games on the board, stand-in skipper Jackson Coote - who takes over for the unavailable Matt Findlay - said his side is starting from the absolute bottom.

“The way I see it we’ve hit rock bottom, it can only be up from where we are right now,” Coote said.

“We played some pretty ordinary cricket last weekend. Granted we also did some things very well, but overall it was less than impressive.

“So fingers crossed the boys have learned from the mistakes we made last weekend, and can put the lessons into practice.”

Orange will take on a powerful Cowra side in the second round of the state-wide knockout competition, with the winner to face the tough task of playing Dubbo in Dubbo in the third round.

The Lachlan-based team welcomes back hard-hitting batsman Mick Curtale - a former SCG Country Cup winner with Queanbeyan - and boasts almost unrivalled ability at the top of the order in Conor Crook and in-form Pete Guthrie.

“They’ll be really strong, no doubt, but you always know in SCG Cup you need to beat the strongest sides to do well,” Coote said.

“We’re not unrealistic, we know we’re up against it. But we also know we have the ability in this side to do well, and beat Cowra, it’s just about putting a complete performance on the paddock.

“With the President’s Cup gone one of goals is gone too. But we aren’t just going to go through the motions now. Our new goal is to beat Cowra, and get ourselves a round three spot against Dubbo.

“We’ve seen miracles happen against Dubbo before, so if we can get there who knows. We want to go as far as we can in this competition now.”

Curtale, Cowra’s skipper, echoed Coote’s sentiments, adding he wants his side to get another shot at Dubbo after suffering a 144-run loss to the Western Zone heavyweights last weekend.

“This is the big one for us,” the Cowra star said.

“I wasn’t here last year, the boys went good in the Shield making it to the final, but we’re back in the Cup and we’ve got a point a prove.

“We’re always confident, as long as we focus on completing our jobs and don’t make too many mistakes I think we’ll go a long way.”

Play starts at 10am at Wade Park.

n ORANGE: Jackson Coote (c), John Warrington, Charles Litchfield, Matt Baker, Dave Neil, Nick Wright, Max Dodds, Jake Pauletto, Ed Morrish, Curtis Free, Chris Novak, Al Dhatt.