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One Day Cup 2014 preview: Western Australia Warriors

Once formidable WA Warriors side struggled last season and don't look much better in 2014-15. (Image supplied)
Expert
29th September, 2014
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As we continue our Domestic One Day Cup preview series here on The Roar, today we move on to the Western Australia Warriors.

The Warriors only avoided finishing last in the 2013 Ryobi Cup via a higher net run rate than South Australia. They only won the single game, which came against the Tasmania Tigers.

The Western Australians never looked much of a threat last season and in the end never came close. Like the South Australians, they will be looking for a monster turnaround this year to get themselves at the right end of the table.

Adam Voges will captain the Warriors throughout their campaign, and even after making the Sheffield Shield final last year they probably won’t improve a lot on last year’s one day campaign.

The Warriors will also lose Mitchell Johnson and Mitchell Marsh to national duties. The Mitches are possibly their best two players, which will not improve their chances at all.

The addition of Michael Klinger to their squad will also help the Warriors, however the losses of Marcus North and Simon Katich will mean they lack a lot of experience and skill.

Probable Best XI
1. Shaun Marsh
2. Michael Klinger
3. Marcus Harris
4. Adam Voges (c)
5. Cameron Bancroft
6. Sam Whiteman (wk)
7. Andrew Tye
8. Ashton Agar
9. Nathan Rimmington
10. Jason Behrendorff
11. Nathan Coulter – Nile

Players to Watch
Michael Klinger: Klinger has this year transferred to the Warriors from the Redbacks where he has played domestic cricket for the last few years.

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He has been one of the premier batsmen in the domestic game and the Warriors will be hoping for no different this season. Last season in the Ryobi Cup Klinger managed to score 380 runs at an average of 76.

If he can do that again for the Warriors this year it will go a long way to moving the Warriors away from the bottom of the table.

Ashton Agar: Agar burst onto the scene last year as Australia’s new great spin bowling hope and played a couple of Test matches at the start of last year’s Ashes. He was more remembered for his batting heroics at number 11 for the Australian team than what he was selected for – his bowling.

Western Australia will be hoping he can take control for this year’s Matador Barbecues Cup and help Western Australia to some wins.

Major Strength
Pace Bowling. With Nathan Rimmington, Nathan Coulter–Nile and Jason Behrendoff they have some international experience and one of the better pace attacks in the competition this year. If they get it right they could really limit opposition teams scored making their run chasing a lot easier.

Major Weakness
The biggest weakness for the Warriors undoubtedly is the lack of experience in their batting order. It could lead to a lot of inconsistency and if that happens it will create major headaches for the Warriors.

Full Fixture List
Game 1: South Australia versus Western Australia eighth October @ The Gabba (Start time 9:30am)
Game 2: Western Australia versus Tasmania 11th October @ The Gabba (Start time 9:30am)
Game 3: Tasmania versus Western Australia 13th October @ North Sydney (Start time 10:00am)
Game 4: New South Wales versus Western Australia 15th October @ Drummoyne (Start time 2:00pm)
Game 5: Western Australia versus South Australia 17th October @ Bankstown Oval (Start time 10:00am)
Game 6: Victoria versus Western Australia 19th October @ Drummoyne (Start time 2:00pm)
Game 7: Western Australia versus Queensland 2second October @ Bankstown Oval (Start time 10:00am)

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Series Prediction
Can’t see a lot changing from last year however they will be very dependent on certain youngsters in their team to be consistent.

So Western Australia will probably end up at the wrong end of the table, but you just never know how well their youngsters are going to perform over the course of their seven games. Tomorrow we wrap up the series with the Tasmania Tigers preview.

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