JAMES Psarakis and Riley Ayre give Central North Zone plenty to cheer about when the two talented teenagers begin the Australian Under 19 Cricket Championships in Adelaide today.
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Denman’s Ayre, now playing grade cricket in Sydney, and South Tamworth’s Psarakis line up against Queensland in an opening round one-day match at Brighton Oval.
For Psarakis, 18, it will be an even bigger honour as he’s been selected to captain combined NSW Country/ACT in the one day games.
Matt Condon, who has been named in the Prime Minister’s XI to play England, will captain the team in the two-day games.
“I’m looking forward to it all,” Psarakis told The Leader from their Canberra camp on Saturday.
“Everyone is fit and we’ve had no injuries. Everyone is looking good. I like our chances; I’m quietly confident.
“It’s great to be captain for the one day day games too.”
He’s also batting at four, which is a bit higher up than when he batted in the middle order for NSW in the Australian Under 17 Championships in Adelaide.
“It’s a bit more responsibility,” Psarakis said.
“We’ve got Queensland first up. I’ve played with and against a few of them (Queenslanders) so that should be good fun too.”
Psarakis said the side had a good camp in Canberra, training hard as well as having some bowling practice against the touring English side here acclimatising for the World Cup.
n Psarakis’ South Tamworth teammate, Tom Groth, enjoyed success at the Australian Country Cricket Championships in Bendigo yesterday.
Playing reigning champions Western Australia, Groth and his NSW Country teammates made 140 in their first innings of the 50 over-a-side match and then bowled out the Sandgropers for 119.
Andrew Lindsay was the star for NSW, coming in at 7-92 and scoring 38 off just 32 balls to help set a defendable target.
He then claimed 2-34 off his nine overs and with Tim Cox (4-16) and Mitch Coombs (2-25) dismissed WA 22 runs short of their victory target.
However their win was in vain as tournament leaders, Queensland, powered to a 10-wicket win over South Australia, dismissing them for 105 for opening batsmen Gerard Fox (46no) and Mitchell English (56no) to knock off the runs in 16.2 overs.
NSW Country plays East Asia Pacific in its final round game today.
