Cricket: Central North under 16s girls set to begin Country Championships

Just two of the 12 players in the squad have not been before, and coach Luke Knight expects their hard-earned wisdom to play in their favour.

"I'm expecting us to be very competitive against the other three teams here over the next couple of days," Knight said.

Central North will play in Pool A, where they will be joined by the ACT, Greater Illawarra, and North Coast sides.

The teams will play three T20 matches over the course of the next two days, before the top-ranked sides from Pool A and Pool B will face off in the grand final on Tuesday afternoon.

Although his team has ample experience under their belts, Knight knows the rest of the associations taking part have also seen growth among their women's competitions and expects this year's Country Championships to be evenly contested.

"I think they're all pretty good," he said.

"The Newcastles, North Coast, Central Coast, Riverina, they're all good. They've all got their own strength of players, and I think we're all very evenly matched."

Given the closeness he expects within the competition, the pressure is on for the Central North girls.

Their best chance at winning the upcoming matches, Knight said, is to ensure they can stick to the strategy on the day.

"It's just about how you turn up on the day, what the game plan's like, and how you execute those plans," he said.

The strength of this year's squad will lie in its bowling.

Central North boasts several talented bowlers, of both pace and spin, and a handful of allrounders as well.

While Knight admitted that their batting was not likely to be a strong suit, he hopes they will be able to dismiss oppositions sides quickly and keep run-chases short.

"We've got more strength in the bowling, so I'd like to think we can bowl sides out in the next couple of days," he said.

"We're very dominant with the ball, and with the bat we're probably not as strong but if we bowl sides out for low scores we should have no issues chasing the runs down."

Overall, the squad is feeling "pretty excited", Knight said.

But once the tournament starts and they start to feel the pressure, he and the coaching staff will need to help keep them calm.

"This is my 15^th year now, so you see them come into camp and then just after tea they start to get a bit quiet and the nerves start to hit," Knight said.

"That's where myself and the coaching staff will get get in their ears and talk to them and try to take some of that pressure off them."

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