Cricket Illawarra: Defending champs Northern Districts look to bounce back

Each side will play two matches this Saturday (October 14) with the league beginning to heat up.

There were upsets in the inaugural round such as Wollongong overcoming last year's champions Northern Districts and the league's newest club Illawarra Passionate Cricket Club picking up a victory against Corrimal.

University - who were victorious in their first round match against Wests - will have the task of beating IPCC but not before their first match of the day against the team arguably highest on confidence, Wollongong at Thomas Dalton Park.

But it will be defending champions Northern Districts who will be looking to bounce back from their opening round loss to Wollongong.

They will face both Corrimal and Balgownie in their quest for early points on the board. In order to make finals and defend their crown two wins are a must this weekend. It is something that captain Sam Hobson knows all too well.

"We won't be able to make the finals if we don't get two wins this weekend," he said.

"So it's very important. But it's also important to get some wins to build a bit of momentum ahead of the one-day season. Of course it's pretty vital that we bounce back this weekend.

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"We're still pretty positive and we're looking forward to getting a first win this weekend. We've got a few out this week so it's a bit of a different team but we're still quite confident that we can get the job done this weekend."

Northern Districts will be without regular wicket-keeper Justin Brancato, leg-spinner Bailey Leadbitter as well as Jonathan Fowles, the latter to a knee injury.

Despite this, Hobson was confident of the depth at his disposal and said games against Corrimal and Balgownie were winnable.

"We go into most games being able to win. Corrimal and 'Bally' should give us a good opportunity to get two wins on the board and get to the final," he added.

"Both games being at Hollymount Park really suits us and makes it quite easy to travel. It helps whereas other teams do have to do a little bit of travel between games. So that should be a factor and we think we can get two wins this weekend."

In other round two fixtures (starting at 11:30am), Keira face IPCC, Wollongong take on UOW, Port Kembla play Balgownie and Dapto hosts Wests.

Teams will play their first match and then brush themselves off for another fixture, to be played at 3:30pm.

These fixtures include: Corrimal against Keira, Wollongong up against Dapto, UOW versus IPCC and finally Port Kembla taking on Wests.

The two games at the weekend will see teams past the half-way point of the T20 competition with another double header to follow next week (October 21) before the top two sides face-off in the grand final on Sunday, October 29.

The one-day competition begins a day before the T20 final (on October 28).

In the opening round, Wollongong face Balgownie, Wests tackle Corrimal, Dapto take on UOW, IPCC make their 50 over debut against Port Kembla and defending champions Northern Districts travel to Keira.

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