The Ballarat Bolts will play off for its second grand final appearance in as many years on Saturday in the Cricket Victoria north-west one-day competition.
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The club will take on Melbourne University in a cut-throat elimination final in Ballarat.
Both sides will enter the contest at one win a piece against each other, with the Bolts securing most recent bragging rights with a thumping 60-run win a month ago.
But Bolts head coach Jeremy Byrne said the last encounter was much closer than the scorecard suggested.
"We've played each other three of four times and it's just about even," he said.
"They are a really strong batting line up and we'll be really interested to see how things pan out."
The Bolts will enter the game without leading run-scorer Lillee Barendsen, who is playing in the under-15 female national cricket championships in Canberra.
She will be replaced at the crease by 16-year-old Amelia Brown, who is set to open the batting with club captain Nicole Edwards.
Brown was named as the opener last weekend, scoring seven runs in a loss to table-leaders Greenvale.
Byrne said she had big shoes to fill, but had every faith in the youngster's ability.
"She did a great job last week and she's been doing a good job in the middle order," he said.
"It's obviously big losing someone like our leading run-scorer, but the the good thing about our group is the flexibility we have."
Byrne said Edwards would be a good compliment for Brown, who is capable of lasting of a long time in the middle. He said early partnerships would go along way to winning the match.
"Our shortfall throughout the year has been losing clusters of wickets, so if we can try and nullify those we'll put ourselves in a good position," he said.
Byrne said Melbourne had some serious weaponry upfront - most notably Odette Lopez, who wasn't in uniform during the last encounter.
He said last time the side faced Melbourne, the Bolts took a number of early wickets and needed to do so again.
"Their top four are capable of making 50 to 100," he said.
"We see ourselves as more of a bowling side. Everyone bowls at different stages of the game and we are hoping we can show how strong we are in that area."
The Bolts will be chasing their first one day title on Saturday after falling to Hoppers Crossing in the decider last season. Byrne said he just wants his troops to be happy with the effort they put in.
