BLAYNEY skipper Nick Bird fired the first shot ahead of tonight’s Royal Hotel Cup clash, saying CYMS aren’t the team many in green and gold think they are.
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Blayney sits in equal second with CYMS, and Orange City, on six points in pool B but are technically coming fourth on quotient.
As a result, Bird knows his side needs to bounce back after a thunderous eight-wicket loss to the Lithgow Lightning, something he says they can do against CYMS.
“We know enough about CYMS, they’re a good side but they aren’t the strongest team in the competition,” Bird said.
“CYMS have a few good players, but Cavaliers and Orange City are the benchmark to me.
“We need to bounce back, we got towelled up by Lithgow. But, our bowling wasn’t all that crash hot in that game.”
Bird said tonight’s clash is the most important game of his side’s season, acknowledging the fact a loss would have Blayney facing its first group stage relegation since entering the competition in 2012-13.
“I’ve spoken to the boys, and they know we have to show up ready to play for 40 overs at 110 per cent,” Bird said.
“At the end of the day Twenty20 is a pretty simple game, and we just need to make sure we don’t overthink it.
“Score runs, take wickets, win the game. We want to be in the semi-finals, we want to win it. Winning (tonight) is crucial to those hopes.”
CYMS vice-captain Dave Neil returned serve, saying Bird and his troops must enjoy total recall, with the two sides not having met for over two seasons.
“They must have great memories (to know us so well) because I’m sure we’ve only played Blayney once and that was two or three years ago,” Neil said.
“We won pretty handily if memory serves, but I honestly can’t recall too much about their team.”
In fact CYMS defeated Blayney by eight wickets in the 2012-13 semi-final, but after conceding past results count for little in T20 Neil labelled tonight’s game “crucial”.
“Lithgow’s in the box seat and it looks like the fight for second is between us, City and Blayney,” Neil said.
“This game and the City-Blayney match will be the key games in the pool.
Neil admitted there's still aspects of the short format game that his side must improve on.
“There’s still a bit of a ‘boundary or dot ball’ approach with our batting, rather than knocking the ball around and running hard, which will generally get you a competitive total.
“We’re bowling and fielding well, so if we can avoid that 'hero shot' mentality we’ll be hard to beat.”
Tonight’s clash at Wade Park starts at 6.30pm.
