CAVALIERS vice-captain James Ryan says what his team has been doing isn’t working.
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The maroon caps have gone through the Royal Hotel Cup with just one win so far, over Kinross in the group stages, and now face a do-or-die super six match with Blayney tonight at Wade Park.
There is no doubt Cavaliers have under performed in Twenty20 cricket, Ryan said, and need to “change it up a bit” to keep their title aspirations alive.
“What we’ve been doing or trying to achieve hasn’t really worked at all so far,” he said.
“It’s must-win, so it’s all or nothing. We’ll put some plans in place and if they come off, great. If not, we concentrate on two-day cricket even harder.”
With one of the best short-form batting line-ups in the competition, Ryan said it is hard to fathom how his team has only been able to muster scores of 9-102, and 83 in the two losses they have suffered.
“I think we’ve bowled and fielded well all year in all forms, especially T20,” Ryan said.
“When we’ve lost games it’s been our batting, so if that fires then we are in with a good chance.”
Ryan said his team is especially desperate to win tonight because a victory would almost certainly pit the maroon caps against CYMS in the semi-final.
CYMS defeated Cavaliers in the Orange District Cricket Association limited overs final in late December, and Ryan said his troops would love another shot at the green and golds.
“It would be great to get another shot at them in a finals situation,” he said.
“I’m confident if we play them again we can knock them over. That’s who everyone wants to beat and I can’t think of anyone better to do it than us.”
Blayney captain Jameel Qureshi echoed Ryan’s sentiments, regarding his own team. Qureshi said his troops let themselves down in their 13-run loss to Orange City two weeks ago.
“We’ve been playing out too many dot balls,” Qureshi said.
“And our fielding wasn’t great against City. We’ll look to improve both those things against Cavaliers. They’ve got some great players but we’ve barely looked at other teams in this competition, so we won’t worry too much about what they’re doing, and just concentrate on ourselves.”
Play between Cavaliers and Blayney starts at 7.45pm.