The Western Warriors coach Justin Langer is full of respect for upcoming opponents Tasmania labelling them the Sydney Swans of the Bupa Sheffield Shield. The fourth-placed Warriors take on the third-placed Tigers at Blundstone Arena on Sunday in the final round of Shield fixtures before the T20 Big Bash League break.
Ben Hilfenhaus misses out due to injury (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Tasmania, who are without the injured Ben Hilfenhaus, have made the past three Shield finals, winning two and Langer acknowledged their strong winning culture by referencing the ever-competitive Swans from the AFL.
“Tasmania are a bit like the Sydney Swans of the cricket world,” Langer said. “They are well renowned for their culture and they know how to win.
“They’ve got some excellent leaders and players. We’ll be showing them respect, they’re always hard to beat in Hobart.
“In saying that, we’ve got a great feeling within our camp at the moment. Our guys at some point will get rewarded for their hard work.
“We’ll be continuing those themes and hopefully we’ll finish off this round of the Sheffield Shield strongly.”
The Warriors have claimed eight points this season from five matches but remain in the hunt for the Shield final, with the top two sides, NSW and SA, only on 18 and 16 points respectively following a number of draws this campaign. Langer insisted the rewards will come for WA.
“We’ve had some good fighting efforts. I thought the way we fought back against Queensland, having come from 5-40 in the first innings, and ended up drawing was a real credit to the boys,” Langer said. “We’ve shown some real fighting qualities during the Sheffield Shield campaign so far. We’re not coming up trumps with the points at the moment but there’s some positive signs.”
While Tasmania have replaced Hilfenhaus with Andrew Fekete, WA have made three changes to the side which drew with Queensland with Luke Towers, Simon Mackin and Ashton Turner replacing Marcus North, Nathan Coulter-Nile and John Rogers.
Tasmania: Tim Paine (c), Xavier Doherty, Luke Butterworth, Mark Cosgrove, Ed Cowan, Alex Doolan, Ben Dunk, Andrew Fekete, Evan Gulbis, Sam Rainbird, Clive Rose, Jordan Silk.
WA: Adam Voges (c), Ashton Agar, Cameron Bancroft, Jason Behrendorff, Ryan Duffield, Michael Hogan, Simon Mackin, Mitch Marsh, Shaun Marsh, Luke Towers, Ashton Turner, Sam Whiteman.
-ends-
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James Buttler
As the editor of World Cricket Badger he is intent on building the website to give quality coverage of the domestic game around the world.
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