The Intersport Sportzbiz Central Highlands Junior Country Week will begin its finals early in a bid to avoid the extreme heat on Friday.
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The Central Highlands region board decided to move the matches forward to a 9am start time, an hour earlier than the usual 10am.
Under-13 matches will be shortened to the twenty20 format. As for the under-15s, their matches will be cut from 45 overs to 40 but with split innings.
This means the team batting first will bat for 20 overs then the second team will have their 20 overs.
Depending on the whether, a result can be drawn from these first 20 overs, otherwise the second team to bat will continue with its remaining overs and set the first team a target to chase.
This alternative allows umpires to make a call on the heat after 40 overs without disadvantaging one team.
With temperatures expected to reach mid-30s by around 11am, creating a system that offers the possibilty of an earlier result is key.
Intersport Sportzbiz Central Highlands Junior Country Week coordinator Mat Begbie said the heat was always going to play a factor, but it was hoped results could be achieved.
“It’s going to be pretty hot tomorrow. The options are to not play at all or hopefully get some play in, the board decided that that was the way to go, to play,” Begbie told The Courier.
Begbie said there was no exact temperature figure in which matches would be called off, rather a judgement call by the umpires.
“They’ll make that call if it does get too hot in the morning.”
UNDER-15 FINALS
Gisborne Green v Ballarat Gold, at Eastern Oval.
Castlemaine v Grampians, at Northern Oval.
Ballarat Blue v Gisborne White, at CE Brown Reserve.
Maryborough v Grenville, at Alfredton Recreation Reserve.
UNDER-13 FINALS
Gisborne Green v Ballarat Gold, at Buninyong Recreation Reserve.
Grampians v Castlemaine, at White Flat Oval.
Ballarat Blue v Gisborne White, at CE Brown Reserve.
Grenville v Maryborough, at Alfredton Recreation Reserve.
Meanwhile, Thursday was a much better day for Ballarat teams in the Central Highlands Junior Country Week, with all four teams winning.
Ballarat Gold’s under-15 enjoyed a big win of Castlemaine, restricting Castlemaine to 9-58 from its 45 overs, Riley Fisher (2-6 from five overs) with the best figures.
Gold passed the total with nine wickets to spare, Jack Bambury hitting an unbeaten 56 off 51 balls. While Blue chased down Maryborough’s 66 (Kade Wells 3-9) comfortably, with five wickets to spare.
In the under-13s, Blue had a thumping 141-run victory over Maryborough while Gold made 7-206 (Teddy Stewart 43*, Darcye Moloney 41*) and then stormed through Castlemaine for just 41 runs (Charles McKenzie 3-4).
