Gleeful cries of 'yes, Mamba' are sure to ring around Wade Park once again this weekend after CYMS skipper Hugh Le Lievre confirmed legendary spinner Al Dhatt will make a much-coveted return from the cricketing wilderness.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Le Lievre has been working on Dhatt all summer and will welcome him back into the green and gold fold as CYMS look to bounce back from two consecutive Bathurst-Orange Inter-District Cricket defeats against Bathurst City.
"It's great to have Al back involved. Being the club's 75th season and having the BOIDC back I have been trying to tempt him and even though he's given no indication of whether he'll remain all summer, he'll be a big addition in this game at least," Le Lievre said.
"Looking at the competition so far there's been some very big scores on dry, hard, flat wickets but the most-successful sides so far seem to have a couple of high-calibre spinners in their attack.
He's one of the club's great, modern-era bowlers.
- CYMS captain Hugh Le Lievre, on Al Dhatt
"[Chris Novak] has done a very admirable job so far with his leg-spinners and I think Al will really complement him and help the rest of the attack, he's one of the club's great, modern-era bowlers."
Dhatt's numbers back that statement up and then some, behind only Novak he's still Orange's leading wicket-taker in the MyCricket era despite not playing regularly in the past three seasons.
Since 2009-10 Dhatt has taken 205 scalps at a miserly average of 11.48, including one ridiculous, 49-wicket season in 2013-14, when CYMS famously claimed the Orange association's triple crown.
Le Lievre having a spinner of Dhatt's calibre at his disposal cannot be underestimated, considering his attack has conceded a couple of 300-plus totals in back-to-back losses to Rugby Union and Cavaliers.
"We haven't helped ourselves though, taking wickets on no-balls and dropping catches and that sort of thing," Le Lievre said.
"But you look at the competition and those big scores haven't been uncommon, although it's still very hard to chase more than 300 in bush cricket.
"I'd give our attack a pass mark so far this summer, we've come up against some really high-calibre players and a couple have got away from us, but there's definitely room for improvement.
"I've been imploring them to stay patient, try to cut out those bad balls and really bowl together as a group.
"Some of our younger players haven't played this form of cricket before, when teams can bat their 80 overs and then keep going into the second day, so we're learning. Having Gus Wilson back int the attack this weekend will help too."
Although the obvious decision for any skipper to make is to bat first should they win the toss, that's dictated by scorecards too, the opening day of round four could potentially be an anomaly.
With the Indigenous Twenty20 Cup being played at Wade Park on Wednesday and Thursday and then a Royal Hotel Cup game on Friday, the deck will be about 160 overs old come Saturday afternoon.
Granted it will no doubt be rolled between Friday night's game and 1.30pm on Saturday afternoon, but still, with two spinners and an older, drier wicket Le Lievre may have a decision to make should the coin fall his way.
Cavaliers and Kinross are also in Orange, they face City Colts and St Pat's Old Boys at Riawena Oval and the school's Main Oval respectively. Orange City take on Centennials at Bathurst's Morse Park 1 while Centrals play Rugby Union at the Bathurst Sportsground.
All the games begin at 1.30pm.
DO YOU WANT MORE ORANGE NEWS AND SPORT?
- Receive our free newsletters delivered to your inbox, as well as breaking news alerts. Sign up below ...