Cricket
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WHITE line fever will suspend friendships between sister clubs Exies and Coleambally Nomads tonight when both clubs vie for the Don "Captain" Coleman Twenty20 Shield.
Exies captain Marc Tucker expects mates will become enemies when the two sides meet under lights at Exies No.1 Oval.
Tucker said his players would be motivated to avenge their 70-run loss to Coly in the first round of the competition.
"This game will be more heated because they beat us at the beginning and so there's more to prove," he said.
"A few of our regular first-grade boys play for Coly in the T20 so it will be good to show them who the real first-graders are.
"Every competition that holds a trophy is one worth winning and we really want to take this cup home for the first time."
Tucker said capitalising on catching opportunities would be critical.
"We dropped a few catches in our semi-final and a few against Coly in round one, so if we can take all our chances we'll be going really well," he said.
"Our batting is our strength and a few of our batsmen in great form Lyle Campbell got 45 in the semi and Jamie Winkler scored a century in first-grade last weekend and I'm expecting Cam Arnold to hit sixes everywhere and light it up.
"Their players to watch are Alistair Burge and Simon Mackie, we have to bowl really tight lines to them."
Coly goes into the contest with their tails up having knocked off reigning premiers Coro in a match that went down to the wire, whereas Exies cruised to victory against Hanwood.
Last time the finalists met, Coly's Simon Mackie scored a sizzling century, single-handedly taking the match away from Exies, and Coly's Phil Burge is hoping he'll do it again.
"Winning a tough game against last year's premiers gives us a fair bit of confidence going in," Burge said.
"The Coly side is made up of mostly second-grade players so it would be great if we could get the win over a predominately first-grade side.
"Simon Mackie is a good player, he scored a century in the first round of the T20 competition and if he does that again there's a fair chance we'll win.
"But we've been bowling pretty well we bowled Coro out for 93 but we want to bat first, get a good score on the board and defend that."
Exies will be bolstered by the inclusion of Chris Mansell, who was in terrific form before suffering a hamstring injury.