Cricket Shepparton to host under-23s versus overseas XI exhibition match at Princess Park

It’s local pride versus international firepower, and for cricket lovers, this is the kind of match you don’t want to miss.

Sam Nash, who has helped organise the exhibition alongside his dad, Steve, stated how the ‘backyard cricket meets the world stage’ fusion first came about.

“At the start of the year, we came up with a concept of potentially trying to get a bit of a game going where a Cricket Shepparton team would play against club’s overseas players,” he said.

“Then, from there Cricket Shepparton played Bendigo in a representative match so we decided to angle it towards an under-23s side.

“It’s good for these guys to play a bit more rep cricket again in that under-23 age bracket and all come together.

“It’s also a really good chance to showcase Cricket Shepparton’s representative side and show we have quite a lot of overseas players, bring them together and show that our league is a place where people can come from all parts of the world to play cricket.”

Nash, who was a member of the selected Cricket Shepparton side that took on Bendigo last month, was given the job of choosing the squads for Sunday’s blockbuster.

That’s no easy task.

Cricket Shepparton has some serious young guns lighting up the A-grade competition, and expect the likes of captain Blake Armstrong (379 runs) and Will Trower (23 wickets) to fire for the under-23s.

Make no mistake — they’ll need to be up for the challenge.

The young brigade has serious A-grade pedigree, but the imports have been feasting all season — racking up runs, ripping out stumps and making life miserable for the locals on the park.

Numurkah jet Raguvaran Aravinthan (402) leads the line with the bat, while Tatura local Jayden Armstrong — who holds an English passport — will go head-to-head against his brother as he fills the final slot in the overseas XI due to numbers.

Who wins on paper? Even Nash doesn’t know.

“I’m kind of intrigued to see how it will play out. We do have some really strong players in the A-grade comp under the age of 23 — I think they’ll put on a good show,” he said.

“Obviously, a few of the overseas players have really dominated certain aspects of this year with bat and ball.

“I definitely think it’ll be a good game — I’m not sure who I’ll pick — but I’m just hoping for a good game, which I think it will be.”

Sunday is sure to provide serious shot selection, sizzling seam movement and maybe even a bit of sledging.

It’ll be far from throw-downs in the nets, but beneath the surface, Nash hopes the players and spectators alike will take something else away from this weekend’s exhibition.

“That game against Bendigo was the first step towards Cricket Shepparton getting back into some form of interleague cricket,” he said.

“It’s just a really good opportunity for people to go out there and play with the best players in the league and challenge themselves in a different way.

“Put themselves out of their comfort zones a bit, play cricket with some different guys — it’s a really good way to learn and gain other ideas off how other people go about their cricket as well.

“It’s also a really good showcase for Cricket Shepparton to show the young talent we have and also the overseas talent that we gain every year.”

• Cricket Shepparton’s T20 match between the under-23s and an overseas XI will start at 2:30pm.