Cricket: Crunch time for Rotorua/Taupo teams

Bay of Plenty Indians player Sandeep Paul plays a shot earlier this season. Photo / File

Heading into today'ssemifinals, Bay of Plenty Indians are the form team in the Rotorua/Taupo reserve grade competition.

After being knocked out at the semifinal stage of the pre-Christmas competition, they approached 2018 with renewed vigour.

The Rotorua-based side won the New Zealand Indian Sports Association cricket title, won two from two games in the Rotorua/Taupo Twenty20 competition and went through the post-Christmas round-robin unbeaten to sit top of the table and earn a home semifinal against Taupo old Boys 1.

Bay of Plenty Indians captain Shonit Chandra said he and his team were well aware that being unbeaten so far meant nothing if they lost in the semifinal.

"We have been training a lot, but we are approaching it as just another game. We have a good bowling line up and a good batting line up, so hopefully it all comes together," Chandra said.

He said the team learnt some lessons from last year's semifinal.

"The boys need to play their natural game, play to their strengths. The boys who can hit the ball for six don't need to try to block it. We talked about that at training, I said 'you guys are good at hitting the ball so hit it'. We don't want to repeat the same mistakes we made."

Geyser City Western Heights High School Old Boys player Ken McIlroy takes a one-handed catch. Photo / File

The other semifinal is also a Rotorua-Taupo battle, with Geyser City Western Heights High School Old Boys taking on Lake Taupo.

When the sides met during the round-robin it was Geyser WHHS who claimed bragging rights as they limped across the line for a one wicket win, chasing 128.

Geyser WHHS captain Joe O'Donoghue said, with 13 players available, it was hard to pick a starting XI.

It will be the first appearance in the knockout stages for the side which formed last year and narrowly missed out on the pre-Christmas semifinals.

"This half of the season has been a lot better than the first half and during the round-robin we beat lake Taupo, but we do know the final stages is a lot different. I've seen the team they've announced and it's a lot stronger - our boys are definitely up for the challenge.

"We all just want to go out there and prove we deserve to be playing against the best teams. With Geyser JPC not making the semis, they're backing us to do well. We're representing Geyser as a whole and it would mean a lot to the club to do well. Geyser JPC lost in the final pre-Christmas so it would be nice to go one better," O'Donoghue said.