City Colts chase back-to-back victories this weekend to stay in BOIDC finals race

Colts will travel to face Orange City in Saturday's Bathurst Orange Inter District Cricket elimination final at Riawena Oval, where the winner will then face St Pat's Old Boys at Morse Park 1 the following day.

For Saturday's loser it's season over.

Colts' battle to reach BOIDC finals came down to the last round of the regular season, where a bonus point victory over Centrals was needed to hold onto fifth position ahead of ORC.

Skipper Russ Gardner wants his team to be playing two games this weekend after all the work that went into reaching the top five.

"We certainly worked hard to earn this. It's a great opportunity for us to play finals cricket and to see if we can progress further into the series," he said.

"It will be a big weekend, well, we're hoping that it turns into a big weekend."

Temperment is a key factor for Colts to keep in mind this weekend.

The team has their share of big hitters but the addition of 10 overs in the finals series means they have to pick their moments carefully for when to go after their shots.

"Everyone in these finals are a great side and one-day cricket is one of those things where the best team on the day is going to win, and extending it out to 50 overs makes it slightly different to what we've been playing," Gardner said.

"We've got to reassess our approach and make sure it's appropriate for 50 overs of batting and fielding.

"I reflect back on the games we won and they're the ones where we batted our overs or caught the target with plenty of wickets in hand. That's been a positive sign. When we've applied ourselves we've got results."

The two sides have only met on one occasion this season. Colts recorded a crushing seven wicket victory at Loco Oval on the back of a strong Gardner and Josh Toole stand.

Colts will have to call upon their club depth to try and get past the Warriors, with both Dave Rogerson and Pat Hill unavailable for the sudden death game.

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