City will welcome back their “big guns” this Saturday as they prepare to bounce back from a loss against Hillgrove.
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The side were missing captain Kyle Taylor, vice-captain Josh Martin, Andrew Skinner and Andy Sawyer when they couldn’t manage to chase down a previously-winless Hillgrove in their last start.
Karl Triebe skippered the side on Saturday and said they are looking forward to taking on Ex-Services with a close to full-strength line-up.
“I think there is only one or two of our normal first XI out,” he said.
“We have the bulk of our team back this week.”
Ex-Services have experienced hot and cold patches of form through the opening rounds.
“You can't underestimate them, especially in the one-day format,” Triebe said.
“They are a side that can get a win on you so you still have got to go in with the mindset that it is going to be a tough match and put the best performance you can on the field.
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“They still can score, they have done it to us in the past when we have underestimated them.”
Ex-Services took on a ladder-leading Easts line-up in their last round and fell short in their run chase.
A century to Easts’ opener Cody Graham delivered his team the win but Servies captain John Elliot wasn’t too disappointed with his side’s performance.
“You take Cody's runs out of it, we restricted them to a very reasonable total but, even with Cody's 100, our batsmen just didn't apply themselves well enough,” he said.
“A win would have been good but we are not down by any means.
“We are happy with where our bowling is at, we are just not applying ourselves well enough at the crease at the moment.”
The shining light for them with the bat was 16-year-old Benji Marshall’s efforts with his knock of 37, the second highest of any batsman on the day.
“He is in pretty good form at the moment, young Benji,” Elliot said.
“He has really stepped up and taken up a top five batting role there.”
Despite pressure on young shoulders being tough at times, Elliot has full faith in his young charge.
“It is [hard] but he came to me and said that is what he wanted to do,” he said.
“When you have got a young fella like that wanting to do that you just let them go, let them do their thing.”
In the bowling stakes, Dan Hogan picked up a five-fa on Saturday and will come up against his previous club for round six.
“I will be looking forward to partnering up with him in the bowling this weekend, especially against his old club,” Elliot said.
“It is just good to see him enjoying his cricket.”
