ROUND 19 of Swan Hill cricket means clubs have less than a month to hunt down a place in the finals.
Having made the move from the now defunct Northern District Cricket Association this season, Barham Koondrook have proven themselves a capable side in their first year.
Barham Koondrook sit fifth, with eight wins and seven losses, which include one-day wins over Wandella, Woorinen and RSL.
But a number of their losses have been heavy defeats by lowly placed sides, including big losses to Murrabit and Ultima TUF in January.
The Raiders come into round 19 full of confidence, after handing bottom-placed Swan Hill a massive 236-run loss at Koondrook last week.
Warren Lolicato turned that game on its head with a first-innings 103. Skipper Jayden Hall described Lolicato as his side’s “in-form bat”.
“Obviously Wazza was the standout in that win,” he said.
“I’ll say his first 50 runs was a little scratchy and just going all right, but then he just teed off on his way to the hundred.
“It was a great day to be out there. We set them a pretty good total and then were lucky enough to take a few early wickets.
“We had planned to put the pressure on them, knowing that they had a few guys away, and really put the foot to the throat.”
Hall said the Raiders had a number of dangerous bowlers, headlined by Chameera Akurugoda and Garry Lolicato. The latter missed last week’s win.
“Garry is the obvious answer on both sides of the game, and Chameera is also just a freak of nature with the ball,” he said.
“(Akurugoda) is the kind of guy who can just put the ball on a spot all game, I think he’s taken the most wickets for our club.
“Then, with Garry up the other end, that is a very damaging pairing.
“The way that we’ve built our attack and our bowling plans, we will just continue to be as accurate as we can, hit our spots and hopefully trouble the edge as much as possible.”
This weekend the Raiders come up against this season’s in-form side Nyah District, for the team’s first look at the Demons’ home ground.
The two sides met in the opening round, a game that Barham Koondrook narrowly lost by four runs.
The Raiders bowlers dismissed the Demons for just 107 in their first game in the association, a feat they will be hoping to recreate on Saturday.
But the Raiders batsmen who will need to stand up to the Demons attack, and Hall said he was looking to his full team to contribute.
“I like to think that we bat quite deep when we have a full side in,” he said.
“I believe we bat all the way down to eight or nine, so it’s usually a bit of a team effort when you come up against a team like Nyah.
“We’ll put in the hard yards and speak about putting a few plans in place during training.
“We’ve played Nyah twice so far this year, so we’ve had a decent look at a few of their guys.
“They’re a quality side, so we’ll have to be ready to go from ball one.”
St Mary’s will take on Ultima TUF at Ken Harrison Reserve.
Murrabit face a tough task when they take on the rested Woorinen, who had last week off.
Swan Hill will aim to cause an upset when they host Wandella.
