You’ve got to have faith.
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Legendary WHAM! frontman George Michael said it and Orange skipper Daryl Kennewell has bought into that attitude leading into Sunday’s trip to Bathurst to play the Barracudas in the third round of the Western Zone Premier League (WPL).
Even though selectors have been forced to make six changes from the side that was thumped by a Mick Curtale-inspired Cowra unit two weeks ago – including losing top-scorer Josh Doherty – Kennewell has backed the players coming into the side to get the job done.
“I’m confident in every single player who comes into this group, always, because I know they want to be in the side,” he said.
“That’s the big thing we have with this group this season and it started last season, we know everyone wants to be playing for Orange and there’s a really positive feel around the group as a result.
“We’ll go over to Bathurst quietly confident.”
Along with Doherty, Jock Cartwright, Nick Dunlop, Mitch Winslade, Charlie Greer and Angus Cumming will all miss Sunday’s game.
Matt Corben returns to the side, as do Jackson Coote and Peter Gott – all three are big inclusions considering the work Orange needs to do following round one’s thumping.
“We have a lot to work on from that loss to Cowra, we know that,” Kennewell said.
“Not that we bowled badly, honestly, [Curtale] scored 122 from 69 balls and he just took the game away from us. Outside that, Cowra’s batsmen actually struggled a little bit, the same way ours did.
“That’s probably the biggest thing for us, is scoring runs. Looking at that last game, only one of top seven batsmen hit double figures and that was Josh who scored 73. He’s not playing.
“A lot of that comes down to putting value on our wickets, which we’ll really have to do because we’re light on for batsmen, we’re quite bowler heavy.”
Orange beat Bathurst last year, before losing out to the same side in the President’s Cup final – Sunday’s game doubles up for that competition too.
“We won’t be using that loss as motivation or anything, we’re always motivated to win,” Kennewell said.
“But last season’s results, that win over Bathurst, gives us confidence and we can build on that.”
Bathurst is coming off a five-wicket loss to Dubbo in round one. Sunday’s clash kicks off at 10am at The Scots School.
- ORANGE: Daryl Kennewell ©, Michael Hannelly, Matt Corben (wk), Charlie Mortimer, Nathan Gander, Fletcher Rose, Jackson Coote, Ed Morrish, Zac Reimer, Peter Gott, Scott Kennedy, TBC