RICK ANKERS believes his Burridge side have grown in belief after going close to taking down the Southern Electric Premier League leaders last weekend.
Burridge chalked up a winning draw with South Wilts in their timed clash, which has given them an extra boost of confidence ahead of the short trip to Sarisbury Athletic, writes Steve Wilson of The News..
It already looks like a pivotal fixture in the campaign with second-bottom Sarisbury on a four-match losing streak and struggling for runs.
But they can leapfrog Burridge with a win and Ankers’ side have been unable to find any consistency with their performances.
the Burridge skipper said: ‘It should be an interesting game, because it is quite tight. If we can win, we would pull away from it a little bit and if they win, they would go above us. ‘We will be feeling a lot more confident after a good performance against South Wilts last week.
‘I thought we played well and we had our chances to win the game. But we seem to go one step forward, one step back every week. I have no idea why it keeps happening and it’s very frustrating. We will win and play brilliantly and instead of kicking on, we go and muck it up again. So that’s the challenge for us again to try to put two good performances together.’
Burridge will be without former Hampshire batsman Derek Kenway, who has been battling with a knee injury in a barren season, but Dan Hewitt returns. Joe Gatting may be a doubt having played in last night’s NatWest t20 Blast defeat by Essex at Chelmsford.
Ankers said: ‘Des (Kenway) has had this knee problem and needs to take a couple of weeks off to try to get it right, so that is a big blow for us. But we have plenty of other players who can step up.’
Sarisbury, meanwhile, are contemplating a shake-up to their batting line-up after another inconsistent display in the defeat to Bashley last week. Former captain David Banks may get promoted up the order after another important knock.
Skipper Matt Journeaux said: ‘The batting wasn’t great again. I think we might have to get Banksy higher up the order. We may well have a bit of a shuffle to the batting order. We lost clusters of wickets and we had several rain breaks, which didn’t help last week. We are probably low on confidence with the bat at the moment.
‘You can get into a bit of a rut but it only needs one good innings, and I’m sure it will give us huge confidence going forward again. It’s an important game for us and we know that Burridge are a good side and they have got a very strong middle order.’
Kieron Geyle is unavailable for Sarisbury but James Ingram is back in the side after a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul for the seconds, ironically against Burridge II, last week.
Sarisbury Athletic: Matt Journeaux, Ryan Burl, Basil Akram, Kieran Geyle, Ryan Covey, Jonathan Norris, Dan Goldstraw, Ricky Rawlins, Phil Jewell, David Banks, Jack Lovett.
Burridge: Gatting, Collings-Wells, Richards, Savident, Dods, Nussbaumer, Ankers, Hewitt, Rood, Stancliffe, McMurray.
Burridge chalked up a winning draw with South Wilts in their timed clash, which has given them an extra boost of confidence ahead of the short trip to Sarisbury Athletic, writes Steve Wilson of The News..
It already looks like a pivotal fixture in the campaign with second-bottom Sarisbury on a four-match losing streak and struggling for runs.
But they can leapfrog Burridge with a win and Ankers’ side have been unable to find any consistency with their performances.
the Burridge skipper said: ‘It should be an interesting game, because it is quite tight. If we can win, we would pull away from it a little bit and if they win, they would go above us. ‘We will be feeling a lot more confident after a good performance against South Wilts last week.
‘I thought we played well and we had our chances to win the game. But we seem to go one step forward, one step back every week. I have no idea why it keeps happening and it’s very frustrating. We will win and play brilliantly and instead of kicking on, we go and muck it up again. So that’s the challenge for us again to try to put two good performances together.’
Burridge will be without former Hampshire batsman Derek Kenway, who has been battling with a knee injury in a barren season, but Dan Hewitt returns. Joe Gatting may be a doubt having played in last night’s NatWest t20 Blast defeat by Essex at Chelmsford.
Ankers said: ‘Des (Kenway) has had this knee problem and needs to take a couple of weeks off to try to get it right, so that is a big blow for us. But we have plenty of other players who can step up.’
Sarisbury, meanwhile, are contemplating a shake-up to their batting line-up after another inconsistent display in the defeat to Bashley last week. Former captain David Banks may get promoted up the order after another important knock.
Skipper Matt Journeaux said: ‘The batting wasn’t great again. I think we might have to get Banksy higher up the order. We may well have a bit of a shuffle to the batting order. We lost clusters of wickets and we had several rain breaks, which didn’t help last week. We are probably low on confidence with the bat at the moment.
‘You can get into a bit of a rut but it only needs one good innings, and I’m sure it will give us huge confidence going forward again. It’s an important game for us and we know that Burridge are a good side and they have got a very strong middle order.’
Kieron Geyle is unavailable for Sarisbury but James Ingram is back in the side after a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul for the seconds, ironically against Burridge II, last week.
Sarisbury Athletic: Matt Journeaux, Ryan Burl, Basil Akram, Kieran Geyle, Ryan Covey, Jonathan Norris, Dan Goldstraw, Ricky Rawlins, Phil Jewell, David Banks, Jack Lovett.
Burridge: Gatting, Collings-Wells, Richards, Savident, Dods, Nussbaumer, Ankers, Hewitt, Rood, Stancliffe, McMurray.