WE feel bullet proof and we are here to win.
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Central West Wranglers captain Jameel Qureshi pulled no punches when speaking of his desire to win Sunday's Plan B Regional Bash on the hallowed turf of the Sydney Cricket Ground.
Twelve months ago Qureshi and his men also reached the semi-final stage and with it earned the right to play at the SCG. But the Wranglers missed out on the decider as they suffered a six-wicket loss to the ACT Aces in the Twenty20 format competition.
This year it is again the Aces who stand between the Wranglers and a spot in the decider, but this time Qureshi is intent on winning that semi-final. He is also intent on winning the whole competition.
"We are there to win it," the skipper said.
"We are bush cricketers, the ACT boys are semi-professional, I think they train a fair bit together. But I'm a big believer in country cricket, bush cricket, and if we play our best game I think we'll be hard to beat.
"I have got full faith in who is there and we want to win it."
The Wranglers squad which will travel to the SCG will not be finalised until after the Friday and Saturday Royal Hotel Cup matches.
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But Qureshi anticipates it will be the same unit who qualified for the semi-final thanks to a clean sweep of their Thunder Conference pool games.
The Wranglers side which included Bathurst District talents Qureshi, Adam Ryan, Henry Shoemark, Wayne Sellers, Connor Slattery, Jaden Ekert and Mitch Taylor, beat Orana Outlaws by 20 runs, while downing both South Coast Crew and Illawarra Flames by three wickets.
While considerable portion of the Wranglers squad expected played on Sunday were not in the 2018-19 outfit, Quershi feels that prior experience matters little.
He believes the opportunity to play at the SCG will inspire his men to produce their best.
"I think it's irrelevant if they've played before. I think the situation is that because you are playing at the SCG - you grow 10-foot out there, when you get out there it feels like you're bullet proof," he said.
"It's like you're a kid again, it's pretty special and makes you feel like you can do special things to change the game, those sort of things you dream about.
"In regards to who we are playing against, it wouldn't matter if they had Brett Lee on the other side, no-one would miss this opportunity to play there.
"I'll be telling them to enjoy the moment as they've got the opportunity to leave something special behind. I think if we play our best cricket we'll be hard to beat ... I could pick out anybody with the bat or ball and they could win us the game."
While two of the Wranglers' wins thus far have come chasing a a total, if Qureshi wins the toss he will likely opt to bat first against an Aces outfit which includes Bathurst's Nic Broes
"I like runs on the board, I think at this level you can manipulate the field a bit more. But either way it doesn't really bother us, we'll go out there and be aggressive and see how we go," he said.
The semi-final starts at 2pm, with the victor to meet either Coffs Coast Chargers or Lake Mac Attack in the decider at 6.30pm.
