Whalers face UGS hurdle

Albany Cricket Association will again need to knock over Upper Great Southern Cricket Association in Sunday's qualifying if they are to progress to the finals of the Toyota Country Cup competition for the third successive year.

The Whalers have been forced to travel for the second consecutive year in the qualifiers of the Twenty20 tournament, facing UGS and Avon in two qualifying games in Narrogin on Sunday.

Albany knocked over UGS in last year's qualifiers and went on to finish second on net run rate in the finals.

UGS finished second in Country Week this year and have a formidable side.

It was the second straight year Albany had missed out on the Country Cup title by net run rate after finishing third by virtue of net run rate in a thrilling 2013-14 finals campaign.

Albany has not won the tournament since 1987 and despite their recent success in making the finals weekend which will be held in March, they face a tough task in an attempt to progress this year.

Albany's squad has been severely depleted due to five players on country colts duties and a host of other association stars unavailable. Coen Marwick, Brendan Crudeli, Dylan Holt, Harry Broomhall and Jack Batchelor are all with the country colts on Sunday and will miss the two games along with a number of key players including Nathan Dovey and Craig Tonkin.

Ryan Kinnear will captain the side, which will still feature top order batsman Zane Marwick, Matt Clothier and Dan Vernon, along with spearheads Nathan Crudeli and Hayden Burling. "There is some big outs for the side but it gives opportunity to a lot of other blokes that are in the wings," Kinnear said.

"We've got a really good bowling attack still and the shorter version games are a lot closer anyway, so we need one or two guys to fire with the bat. I'm still confident we can give it a shake."

Albany play UGS first at 11.30am before Avon at 2.30pm.