In-form pair could hold key in final clash

BY LOGAN SAVORY

They both open the batting, they are both wicketkeepers and they both could hold the key to unlock the Southland club cricket twenty20 title for their respective clubs.

Top-of-the-table Marist will meet second-placed Metro Tigers in the club twenty20 final on Friday night.

Shaun Fitzgibbon will lineup at the top for Marist and Ryan Duffy will headline the Tigers' batting as both try to turn some blistering round-robin form into a winning display in the final.

Southland captain Fitzgibbon has been ruthless in club cricket this season and is coming off an unbeaten 84 against Metro in round-robin play of the 50-over competition on Saturday.

Duffy, too, has been good in his first season for Metro.

Metro Tigers captain Mark Beer said Duffy has been the key in getting his team to the final.

"He's been outstanding since joining the Tigers, he's averaging around 50 at the top of the order and he has been getting us off to a good start week-in, week-out. He likes to to be aggressive so he is suited to the twenty20 format," Beer said.

However, Beer did agree Marist had their own danger man at the top in Fitzgibbon that his bowlers needed to contain if they wanted victory.

"They have a very good player in Shaun Fitzgibbon and they rely very heavily on him. So far this season he has been scoring runs consistently for them."

Marist will go into the game with plenty of confidence after topping the table in the twenty20 round-robin series and comfortably beating Metro in a 50-over-a-side game on Saturday. Marist captain Jason Milne was delighted with how his team had preformed to date this season winning five of their six twenty20 games and both one-day fixtures.

"I don't think we could have asked for much more than what we've done," Milne said of his team's form at the moment.

Milne said Marist-versus-Metro clashes were traditionally tight contests and he didn't expect that to differ too much in the decider on Friday night.

He also praised the form of both Fitzgibbon and Kent Donaldson with the bat saying they had been the key contributors this season and hoped that form would flow through to the final.

Friday night's game is scheduled to start at 5pm at Queens Park in Invercargill.

If Queens Park is deemed to be out of use because of wet conditions the game will be transferred to Marist's Miller St grounds.

TEAM LINEUPS
Marist: Jason Milne (c), Shaun Fitzgibbon, Kent Donaldson, Jono Ross, Boyce Anderson, Jacob O'Connell, Damien Eade, James Mulvey, Reuben Prattley, Glen Frew, Dale Frampton, Josh Fitzgibbon.

Metro Tigers: Mark Beer (c), Ryan Duffy, Grant Anderson, Geoff Folster, Hamish Skelt, Brett Freeman, Jason Osborne, Cody Mason, Hamish Cooke, Chris Neylon, Keiren Cody, Jaron Drozdak, Jamie Swift. (One to be omitted).

logan.savory@stl.co.nz

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