The Buddha Cup is on the line for the first time, a year after the sudden death of Dodgers stalwart Aran Bailey.
A memorial was held for Bailey at Ellis Park on Thursday night and a bench seat in his memory was unveiled to overlook diamond one.
He was just 37 when he died and a prominent figure in both the Dodgers and Otago set-ups.
That gives the trophy plenty of meaning for his old team.
"It's extremely significant to us,'' Dodgers captain Logan Herbert said.
"Buddha meant a lot to us in the club, so to be able to play for this trophy is something we're all excited about.''
The team thought of Bailey every game and had come together to continue what it was doing prior to his death.
It has managed to have a successful 12 months too, winning last season's title and going unbeaten through the start of this season.
Despite that, it was still not easy moving on.
"We definitely notice his absence.
"It's been pretty tough coming to terms with what happened and trying to get everyone on the same path of what we're going to do, but we're trying to move forward.
"But everyone's come together and we've done real good job of keeping everything in tact.''
Cardinals captain Mitchell Finnie said it was special for his club to play in the game too.
Bailey had coached many of the Cardinals players on Otago teams and had always been a challenge to play against.
"Buddha's always been a tough opponent,'' Finnie said.
"He knew his stuff and he always knew what to do at the right time.
"From our side it was always trying to figure out what he was going to do and what we could do to counteract that.
"So it's pretty special to be able to play for a trophy under his name.''
Three former Dodgers players - Jacob Wedlock and brothers Matt and Cam Watts - will return from Christchurch for the game.
All had spent a lot of time at Dodgers and been heavily influenced by Bailey.
The first pitch is to be thrown at 4pm.
