WITH a full strength side at his disposal and a host of players with finals experience, Centennials Bulls captain Josh Toole is hoping his men can avoid elimination from the Bathurst District Cricket Association title race.
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The Bulls will meet City Colts at George Park 1 this weekend in the first grade two-day minor semi-final, both teams keen to replicate past premiership success.
Toole’s men finished the regular season in fourth, having taken 24 less wickets and scored 510 less runs than Colts.
But that only matters now in the case of a wash-out where the higher ranked Colts would advance.
“We’ve got a full strength side this weekend, Browny [Andrew Brown] is still out with a broken finger, but other that that we’re at 100 percent. Hopefully we can give it a good shake,” Toole said.
“I’m hoping the weather is good and we can get on, but even if Saturday is washed-out, we can still play a one-dayer on Sunday.
“We haven’t got the greatest record in finals, but we’ve played in a lot of finals and we’ve won a comp before, so hopefully that experience helps us.”
Though his Bulls beat Colts in a two-dayer earlier this season, Toole knows replicating that success will not be easy.
“They play very positive cricket and look to keep the game moving. They’re a very talented team and have a lot of good players, but that’s what you get when you reach the finals,” Toole said.
“We haven’t played first grade at George Park 1 in quite a while so it should be interesting, but I think the surface will be true.”