IN a rematch of last year’s May Kelly Cup decider, Macquarie Hotel captain Josh Hyde will hope for a change in luck in this year’s Australia Day final.
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It will be Macquarie’s fourth-straight final.
Last year Wauchope RSL went on a run in the second half of the season which saw them take out the shorter form as well as the longer form of the game.
Jason Blythe was the hero for Wauchope in last year’s final when he was dropped early and went on to score a matchwinning 53 as Macquarie fell well short of RSL's 8-111.
“We were really disappointing last year with the way we played our cricket in that game,” Hyde said.
“They’ve got a lot of damaging players at the top of the order like Blythey as we saw last year, Matt Miller and Nathan Lyon so we have to take all our chances to win a final.”
Hyde looked at the influence of opener Chris Cole as being a key wicket.
“Coley has been building for a bit of time,” the skipper said.
“He started well at the start of the year and really loves his T20 cricket. He’s pretty much playing now for the Regional Big Bash side so he takes it seriously and he’s always got an opinion in the field and things on where fielders should go.
“If he gets us away to a good start we’ll take some beating.”
Hyde said Cole enjoyed the added pressure of getting Macquarie off to a good start.
He did, however, say there were enough other contributors if Cole missed out.
“He’ll open for us, but our middle order will have to bat around him,” Hyde said.
“We’ve got enough good cricketers in the side to post a decent total regardless of what he gets, but he takes pressure off everyone if he gets a few runs.”
Wauchope captain Matt Miller was looking forward to appearing in a second-straight Twenty20 final.
“Some players bash themselves into form for the longer format,” he said.
“It happened to me last year so hopefully players like Aaron Hagenbach who haven’t been in good form lately can get some runs and make a charge at the end of the season for the finals in the longer form.”
Miller said the key to victory was with a positive mindset.
“We can’t let their good players get into our heads,” he said.
“They’re obviously a very good team, but so are we and we need to play our natural game.”
First ball is at 5.30pm.
Meanwhile, Port City Leagues Magpies Jedi Knights will clash with Wauchope RSL in the Brett Border final from 2.30pm.
The day will start at 11.30am with a George Spencer final between Macquarie and Comboyne.
All games will be played at Wayne Richards Park.
