Twenty20 cricket comes to South Canterbury this weekend as the six senior sides look to club their way to glory, as the excitement and drama of cricket’s most condensed form is played in Timaru this weekend.
Celtic are the defending champions of the competition. They have stormed into the one-day final on the back of some strong batting efforts, and reliable spin bowling in 2011.
Celtic captain Craig Davies said he was confident of a strong showing, especially with a near full-strength squad.
“It’s just a matter of telling the boys on the day that anyone can win and we need to stay on top of things.”
They will have a strong batting lineup stacked with South Canterbury representatives. They also have an attack which has the pace of Glenn Matthews and the spin of Sam Carlaw and Ants de Joux.
Waimate have been the other side in top form.
While they do not have the big names, they have the ability to hit the ball hard and make it go a long way.
Waimate captain Jason Sew Hoy, who scored his first senior club century last weekend, said their bowling could be the wildcard on an Aorangi Oval pitch which seemed slower than usual in the domestic one-day match on Wednesday.
“We’ve got three good spinners so that may help us.”
The ever-reliable Alan Reid will be one to watch when he opens with both bat and ball, while Glen Drake has a lot of potential with the bat.
Timaru have had a turbulent season and are out of the running for both the one-day and two-day trophies.
Captain Hayden Butler said at the completion of the last round of one-day games, his team would relish the opportunity to win a title this season.
Srinivas KS has the ability to bat through an innings while Grant Brookland, Butler, Zane Sanders and an in-form wicket-keeper batsman Logan Taylor, means they could cause an upset.
Roncalli College seem to have run out of puff after a promising start to the season.
Injury to their experienced players like the big-hitting Ryan de Joux and Bruce Carlaw have not helped.
Much will be expected of their captain Jacob Naylor, while Robbie Mulvena has shown a liking to freeing his arms and hitting the ball a long way when needed.
Star may be missing the most of their regular squad this weekend, but captain Phil McGregor said they would be looking to promote a couple of players from the second grade to fill the void.
They are a good all-round team who will be hoping their batting woes of late are out of their system.
Temuka rely on the hard-hitting of captain Richie Preston and bowling of Kevin Teahen.
Rest assured, if Preston gets going, he could carry his side single handed to the final, but they will need players to bat around him.
Adrian Cunningham has the application to do the job, while Rory Lorimer already has a senior century to his name this season.
Teams are split in to two pools of three, with pool games being played at Aorangi Oval and Mountainview High School, beginning at 10am today.
The final will be played at Aorangi Oval on Sunday at 3pm.