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THE pressure is mounting on the men at the top of the order for Exies and Yenda, with both sides desperate for an improved batting performance in tomorrow’s one-dayer at Exies No.2 Oval.
After poor performances in the last round, Exies skipper Marc Tucker and Jets captain Shaun Stubbs have thrown down the challenge to their key batsmen to lift their game.
Yenda has few issues when it comes to bowling, having held defending champion Coro to just 111 on the opening weekend before making life tough for Hanwood in its pursuit of 76 for victory on Saturday.
But after his side was bowled out for less than 80 in its two Peter Davis One Day Cup clashes so far this season, Stubbs knows the poor form cannot continue.
“It’s not ideal. If we can up that to 130 or 140 we should be able to contest with a few sides,” he said.
“We’ve got no trouble in bowling sides out – our problem is putting enough runs on the board to win matches.”
While Tucker was disappointed with Exies’ batting in the shock seven-wicket loss to Leagues, on Saturday he was heartened by Alastair Burge’s performance in Sunday’s SCG Country Shield win for Griffith.
Burge was unbeaten on 36, his innings the key to Griffith padding out their mammoth 217-run total against Leeton.
“He batted brilliant and hopefully he takes that into club form and gets some runs,” Tucker said.
“I think we just need to bat out our overs and score more.
“Against Diggers it was really tough, and because we lost a lot of wickets we couldn’t play a lot of shots, so it put us on the back foot.”
The other positive for Exies from the rep match was Chris Mansell’s terrific five-wicket haul, by far his best performance since returning to the club this season.
“He’s definitely back now – he’s been bowling good all year, he’s just been unlucky, but he finally got a bag,” Tucker said.
Exies will recall Lyle Campbell after a good performance with the bat in B grade, while Nathan Jones also comes into the side for Luke Shannon.
For the Jets, Brett Hazelman looms as the sole inclusion after their loss to Hanwood last round.