Otago Country will be brimming with confidence — and so they should be.
The team demolished Mid Canterbury by an innings and 45 runs in last week’s Hawke Cup zone four match and will be looking to do the same to its northern neighbour, South Canterbury, at Molyneux Park today.
It was a bowling master class in Ashburton from Sukhdev Singh (six for 42) and Charanjeet Singh (six for 45), while Cameron Jackson top scored with the bat with 65 runs.
Today is a big match for the zone four leader. Country will be chasing outright points to stay there in its final zone match and push on for the challenge.
South Canterbury, sitting in second position, needs to beat Country and beat Southland next weekend to jump to the top.
While coach Rhiane Smith said his side gained some confidence from last week, it could not afford to get ahead of itself.
"South Canterbury will be tough," Smith said.
"They’re a good side and we need some points to obviously get to a challenge. I think we need at least five.
"We still have to play well and be positive like we were last week."
It was also a good opportunity for Country to play on a good wicket at home, he said.
Tim Cotter is the only omission from last week’s side. He has been replaced by Steve Hobson.
The two-day match gets under way at 10.30am today.
Hawke Cup
Today and tomorrow
Otago Country v South Canterbury
Alexandra
Otago Country: Josh Shackleton, Taylor Cumberland, Charanjeet Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Cam Jackson, Michael Goldstein, Jeremy Gray, Thomas O’Connor, Kelan Smith, Sam Blakely, Steve Hobson.
