Just do your job, help the side win and then let everything else take care of itself.
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That’s the mindset Orange skipper Daryl Kennewell wants his troops to take into Sunday’s all-important Western Zone Premier League clash with Bathurst, a match-up that could have a huge impact on that competition and Mitchell Cricket Council’s President’s Cup as well.
The Bluebaggers are guaranteed a spot in the latter competition’s grand final but can still earn a breakthrough decider berth in the former as well, but there’s more than one factor at play in the side’s premier league bid.
Beating Bathurst is a non-negotiable in terms of their premier league decider bid, but the Bluebaggers are also relying on Cowra knocking off Dubbo this weekend.
Bathurst remains in the decider frame in both competitions but a defeat to Orange would end their premier league title tilt and, if the Blue Mountains beat Lithgow, knock them out of the President’s Cup race too.
After considering all those possible outcomes you’d be forgiven for being a tad confused, which is exactly why Kennewell is imploring his troops to push all of that aside this weekend.
“Obviously we want to be in all the finals and we want to win all the competitions, winning all the trophies would be amazing considering where we were three or four years ago,” Kennewell said, his side’s already won Mitchell’s Twenty20 Cup.
“But we’re not there yet, we haven’t made that premier league final yet so if we think about that too much we risk losing focus.
“Bathurst will be out for blood after we beat them last weekend and considering the situation they’re in, we know that, so we have to be ready to go the distance with them.
Bathurst will be out for blood after we beat them last weekend ... we know that.
- Orange skipper Daryl Kennewell
“If we can do that and win then we’ll start thinking about the other games, hopefully Cowra do us a favour though.”
Although he said he’s certain last weekend’s Twenty20 Cup win over Bathurst will act as a motivator for the Barracudas, Kennewell admitted he’s not taking too much from it.
“I think everyone knows my thoughts on Twenty20, I’m a fan of the longer formats and they’re very different games,” he said.
“It’s nice to win, don’t get me wrong, and it give us a bit of confidence but it’ll be a very different game on Sunday, I think it’ll be more competitive, Bathurst have been really strong in the 50-over form of the game for a long time.”
Kennewell, as usual, said he has complete confidence in the side he’s named, which boasts the likes of in-form Cavaliers trio Matt Corben, Mitch Black and Bailey Ferguson and somewhat enigmatic Centrals tearaway Fletcher Rose.
They’re four Kennewell highlighted as potential game-breakers on Sunday.
“Corbs has been batting really well and he’s fallen just short of a ton twice for us this summer, I just hope the other guys don’t fall into the trap of relying on him, I want everyone to take responsibility,” Kennewell said.
“Bailey’s obviously coming off a ton so he’ll look to continue that and Blacky’s one of the best spinners in Orange, probably Western Zone really.
“Fletch, if he gets it right, he can tear through any side really quickly and having experienced guys like Josh Doherty and Hugh Le Lievre is important too.
“We’ve named a really strong side this weekend and everyone who’s played this summer has put heir best foot forward, we’ll do the same again this weekend.
“We can get the job done, who's to say we can’t.”
Sunday’s massive clash kicks off at 10am at Wade Park.
- ORANGE: Daryl Kennewell ©, Kaleb Cook, Matt Corben, Josh Doherty, Bailey Ferguson, Hugh Le Lievre, Lachie Coyte, Mitch Black, Ed Morrish, Fletcher Rose, Zac Reimer, Ed Dodds
- BATHURST: Jameel Qureshi ©, Imran Qureshi, Sam Macpherson, Henry Shoemark, Jaden Ekert, Dave Henderson, Nic Broes, Adam Ryan, Connor Slattery, Ben Mitchell, Tanvir Singh, Mitch Taylor
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Matt Findlay
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
Formerly a sports specialist, I'm based at Orange and shift between wide-spread range of subjects here and, often, across the entire Central West region of NSW as well. I have almost a decade of experience in the media and marketing industries both here in Australia and internationally, along with journalism I have experience in content strategy, brand development, and digital and social media. Along the way, I've been fortunate to win a handful of media awards and be nominated for several others too.
