Two potent top orders will go head-to-head in the Gunnedah Premier League grand final on Friday night.
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That match was supposed to be played last Friday but the game was washed out.
Opposing captains - Imperial Hotel's Oscar King and Karen Carter's Henry Johns - highlighted key wickets and they're all at the top of the order.
For Johns, King's name was the first that came to mind when talking about the opposition's "strong team".
"They've been the team to beat throughout the competition," the 16-year-old said of the Tigers who have dropped just the one game.
"We have to get Oscar King out early. He's their strike man."
Opener King tops the run-scoring for the competition with 207 runs at an average of 41.40.
The 19-year-old was at his destructive best a fortnight ago where he scored 77 from 47 balls for Imperial Hotel and then backed it up in first grade where he scored 56 in Court House's Twenty20 clash with Mornington.
Sitting just behind King on the run-scorer's list are Karen Carter openers Simon Norvill and Hayden Baker.
Norvill sits on 205 runs at 41 while Baker has made 180 runs at 45.
Like King, they were both in the runs last week - Baker made 57 and Norvill 35 - and the 19-year-old named the pair as the Strikers' strike weapons.
"Hayden Baker and Simon Norvill are key wickets. If they get going with the bat they are hard to stop," King said.
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The two skippers both said they'd learnt a lot during their time as captain.
The other skippers for the competition were Braithen Winsor, who captained McDonalds, and Ash White, who captained Sign Print Stitch.
The organisers chose young captains for the four sides to give them experience and paired them with a senior player to help them out.
"We were partnered up with a senior captain to pass on their knowledge," Johns said.
"I've learnt a lot and I've enjoyed it. I think I'll be a better leader after it."
King's senior captain had to pull out of the competition but he said Mitch Swain had filled that void.
"It was one of the main reasons I picked Mitch Swain in the team - he knows a lot and if he wants something done, I listen to him. It's the only way I'm going to learn," he said.
While the weather didn't play its part last week, it's been sunny all this week and more sun is predicted for Friday.
Ben Jaffrey
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
Ben is a content curator and journalist for The Land. He has been with ACM since 2015 and first worked at The Area News and then at the Northern Daily Leader. Ben first joined ACM Agri as a digital journalist for all seven agricultural mastheads in 2022 before shifting to The Land full-time in 2023.
