Teams remain in hunt for TCI finals spot

THE first day will shed a light on the finals picture heading into the last round of TCI A-grade.

Tom Hughes batting for Highfields-Railways. Photo: Kevin Farmer

CRICKET: With one round remaining in the TCI A-grade competition, the race for finals positions is still alive and well.

As it stands, Western Districts (112.98 pts) are the only team guaranteed a spot, having locked up the minor premiership last weekend.

Metropolitan-Easts (88.61) is in prime position to hold onto second spot with a clear gap to third, however they must face Wests to round out the regular season.

Northern Brothers Diggers (77.83) currently hold third, but they have Highfields-Railways (66.65) and University (64.79) breathing down their necks.

Diggers can go a long way towards sealing their spot in the post-season when taking on University at Rockville Oval. For University, they need to win big to give themselves a chance and rely on other results to go their way.

Highfields-Railways will fancy their chances of taking victory over last-placed Southern Districts.

Captain Kurtley Nielsen said spirits are high at the club at the moment, something they are hoping to take into this weekend’s fixture.

“Confidence is high and there’s a pretty good feel around the place at the moment,” Nielsen said.

“We’ve got a good mix of the players at the moment. We’ve felt like we’ve had a good mix all year, but for one reason or another things just finally seem to be clicking.

“Our batting has come a long way. The performance on the first day gave us enough runs that we knew we could defend.”

As for their clash with the Magpies, Nielsen said their immediate focus is on securing first innings points.

“At the end of the day we just need to focus on winning the first innings first,” he said.

“We’ll worry about the game situation from there.

“Cricket is a funny game and anything can happen. If we do our part and things go our way, then that’s the nature of it.

“If a few results earlier in the season went our way then we wouldn’t be in this situation, but if it’s meant to be.”

FIXTURES
Southern Districts vs Highfields-Railways at Middle Ridge Park; Northern Brothers Diggers vs University at Rockville Oval; Western Districts vs Metropolitan-Easts at Captain Cook Reserve. Play commences at 12.15pm tomorrow.

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