Gunnedah will look to do another demolition job on Tamworth Blue when the sides meet in the Ross Taylor Cup under-16 final at Wolseley Park on Sunday.
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The sides met in round six at Tamworth on February 11, with Gunnedah winning by 185 runs.
In that match, Gunnedah opener Adam McGuirk struck a 146-ball 146 as the visitors reached 2-297 off 50 overs.
They then dismissed Tamworth for 112 in the 32nd over.
Gunnedah coach Scott Clarke said: “He [McGuirk] shows a lot of maturity at the top of the order.
“He is also punishing.
“He knows the bad balls to put away and he puts them away.
“Obviously, he’s a very valuable top-order player.”
Clarke said Gunnedah would field the same team that defeated Tamworth and go into the match “with exactly the same mindset”.
He said: “And I suppose we’re confident.
“But at the end of the day, it’s a ball game, so it can bounce either way.”
He added: “I think it’s important our top order fires again.
“That’s where a little bit of confidence kicks in. Our top order is all in form.
“Certainly the nail in the coffin in our bowling innings [on February 11] was the performance of Ash White and Oscar King and our ability to chase hard and put pressure on in the field.”
White and King both claimed three wickets in the match.
Blue coach James Haling believes they’ve got the team to win but acknowledges that they didn’t perform anywhere near well enough that last game.
“I think we know we can play a lot better. We just need to turn up and do it,” he said.
“Our biggest thing is turning up ready to play. We seemed very lethargic last time when we played them.”
Why he wasn’t quite sure, but they seemed to be “off the pace”.
“They (Gunnedah) batted well. (But) We helped them bat well too the way we played,” he said.
“Hopefully we can turn up with a bit more enthusiasm.”
He spoke about building more pressure.
“That’s what I said after the last game, never at any stage did we bowl well enough to mount any pressure,” Haling said.
The same went for their batting. After losing early wickets they never recovered.
The other two games will be played in Tamworth.
The Tim Grosser Cup under-14 final will be an all-Tamworth affair with the Blue facing their Gold counterparts while in the Ross Panton Cup under-12 final the Blue will host Armidale.
Armidale locked in their spot by thrashing Moree on Sunday.
It is the first time an Armidale under 12 team has made a Northern Inland grand final for a number of years and coach Jerome Simpson believes his side can bring home the trophy.
“I honestly believe the kids can do it,” he said.
“They are playing so much better than when Tamworth beat them by about 30 runs at the start of the season.
“They are a totally different side and I think they will really stick it to Tamworth and hopefully come home with the trophy.”
The Blue 14s were in ominous form with the bat against Narrabri last week hammering 9-268, Kilian Apen top-scoring with 67.
Despite then routing Narrabri for just 55, co-coach Damian Henry indicated there was plenty of room for improvement.
“We didn’t bowl that well. We dropped a couple of catches but we did the job,” he said.