FINAL SPOTS ON THE LINE
CRICKET: The thought of playing in the Harding-Madsen Shield grand final has not yet crossed Louis Reen’s mind.
The Northern Brothers Diggers captain said the team was focused on this weekend’s semi-final against top team Laidley.
“We are taking each game as it comes and this is a big one for us,” Reen said.
“We’re excited to still be in the hunt.”
Diggers snuck into the top final finalists after a win over Metropolitan-Easts last round.
“We’re probably going to have to play a lot better than we did to beat Laidley, they’re undefeated,” Reen said.
“They are a really good side and we have to be at our best to beat them, they have some good cricketers down there.”
Reen’s first plan of attack is to limit Laidley’s top scorers in Mick and Gerard Sippel.
“They’re out target, if we can take them out we’re half a chance,” he said.
He is confident Kane Bradford can open Diggers’ bowling attack strong with support to come from Stephen Thompson and Kris Glass.
Diggers and Met-Easts both face a massive weekend of cricket with the Twenty20 format kicking off tonight.
“It’s two completely different games,” Reen said.
“It’s a big thing being able to adjust out of T20 into the one day format.”
He has structured Diggers’ training around the one-day format in preparation for Sunday’s semi-final.
“Most of our batsmen are
really aggressive in the top order anyway so we don’t have to change that too much,” he said.
“We will just reset and go again for the one day final.
“If we get through this week it will just be a matter of preparing for the next but we’re not even thinking about that just yet.”
Diggers will play two Twenty20 games on Saturday against Highfields Railways and University before travelling to Ipswich for their one day final against Laidley on Sunday.