JUST two rounds remain within the Portland and District Cricket Association’s A grade home and away campaign and tomorrow’s action is shaping up to be an important preview of the finals series ahead.

Portland Colts will face Portland Tigers tomorrow on the turf wicket at Henty Park in a match-up between second and third on the ladder.

Should the ladder remain as is come the semi-finals on March 12, these two sides will face each other.

Colts will be well rested tomorrow on their home deck fresh from the bye last round and eyeing off a spot on the top of the ladder, with just half a game (2.5 premiership points) separating them Gorae-Portland in first.

Tigers and Colts have already completed one-day contest post the mid-season break, which Colts won by nine wickets after completing an easy run chase of just 67 runs.

Tomorrow’s Tigers will enter the match-up with a renewed level of confidence after defending a total of 94 runs against a then rampaging Go-Ports team on an eight-game winning streak.

A number of players had close to season-best performances in round 13 for the boys in yellow-and-black and captain Will Oakley said the team has one player whose contributions have flown under the radar.

“The whole team has loved what we’ve seen from Llewellyn (Oakley) over the last few weeks,” he said.

“He’s played every A grade game for us this season batting at number three and after we lost a bit of batting firepower between seasons, I think he’s done a great job stepping into that top order role.

“We’re prone to losing an opener or two early so when he comes out at number three he’s often playing a similar role with a lot of pressure, but he’s shown he’s always happy to slow the tempo down for us and stem the loss of wickets.

“He hasn’t been able to spin one of his starts into a bigger innings just yet but you can see the improvement every time he bats which is all we can ever ask for, and I thought against Go-Ports he was at his best.

“His bowling too has been great, probably even better than what he’s doing with the stick.

“We’re often throwing him the ball in those late to middle overs where the life has been taken out of the ball by our attacking bowlers, and before the death before they’re going to get it back.

“Those are really difficult overs to bowl in, batsmen tend to really go after you, and you don’t get much credit when you do well in there.

“3-19 against Tyrendarra, 4-4 against South and then 3-12 against Go-Ports, those are figures as good as anyone’s in the competition, he’s been right up there.”

Darras and Go-Ports

With South Portland taking the bye in round 14, Tyrendarra and Gorae-Portland will square off at the hard wicket in Tyrendarra in a second possible preview of the finals ahead.

Both teams will enter the contest reeling after frustrating defeats last round.

Tyrendarra was undone by a Mitch Arnold led South Portland side on their home hard wicket, with a rapid unbeaten 45 from the temporary captain chasing down a modest total.

Go-Ports meanwhile were bested by Tigers while chasing a total they’ve reached with ease for the majority of the season so far.

For Tyrendarra a big focus tomorrow will be preventing Go-Ports captain Zac Duncan and fellow opener Jordan Edmonds from having a large impact in either setting a score or completing a chase.

Duncan and Edmonds have done a good job all season of taking the sting out opposition teams’ front line bowlers by surviving as deep as possible into the run chase and using up valuable attacking overs from the bowlers.

For Go-Ports there’s little reason to stray from a game plan which has succeeded for the majority of the summer and a contest with Tyrendarra presents itself with a chance to return to winning shortly before finals begins.