Marist without leading batsman

JILL McKEE/Southland Times

UNAVALIABLE: Marist batsman Shaun Fitzgibbon in action.

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Marist will go into Saturday's Southland club cricket semifinal showdown with Appleby heavy favourites. However, they will have to win it without their star player.

Marist finished top of the table after they thumped Appleby in the final round-robin fixture last Saturday and will be hoping for a similar result when the twoteams clash in the one-plays-four playoff.

Marist have been dealt a blow in the do-or-die fixture with premier Southland batsman Shaun Fitzgibbon unavailable for the clash.

The Otago A and former New Zealand under-19 representative has his brother Luke's wedding this weekend and won't be able to front.

Marist captain Jason Milne admitted it was a big loss but was confident his side still had enough in its camp to get the desired result.

"I'd be disappointed if we were knocked over and used that as an excuse," Milne said yesterday.

Fitzgibbon's younger brother Josh will also be unavailable for the game, which Milne said was just as big of a loss with the young bowler the club's leading wicket-taker this season.

If Appleby were to cause an upset and progress to the final, they may just have picked a perfect weekend to do just that against Marist.

While Marist are missing a couple of key players, Appleby will roll out a full-strength lineup, which will include hard-hitting top-order batsman Andrew Leckie, who will travel down from Christchurch, where he is studying at the moment.

Both the Southland Boys' High School and Metro lineups will also be at full strength for the other semifinal game.

Appleby and Metro at least will be praying for fine weather on Saturday with no reserve day in place if the games cannot be played because of rain. Both games have also been scheduled for grass pitches at Queens Park and Southland Boys' High School.

The Southland Cricket Association has ruled that if the games can't be played on grass they won't be transferred to adjacent artificial pitches. If the two games aren't able to get under way on Saturday, Marist and Southland Boys' will progress to the final, with those teams finishing one and two after the round-robin series.

- © Fairfax NZ News