For some, the momentum of a win from four days ago could carry through to the midweek fixture.

READ MORE SPORT:

For others, the chance to rebound from a disappointing defeat arrives sooner than expected.

Ballarat-Redan and North Ballarat come into their clash with differing emotions following last round.

The Two Swords fell two games behind East Ballarat in fourth thanks to a two-wicket defeat at the hands of Napoleons-Sebastopol.

Geelong Cricket Club premier players Jack Riding and Ryan Aikman re-join the side, strengthening its batting line-up.

The Roosters snatched a win from the hands of Mt Clear to lift it within three games of the top four sides and enter Wednesday's clash with a chance to make another dint in that ladder deficit.

North Ballarat captain Mick Nolan said his bowing attack has been impressive of late.

"Obviously Saturday was a great result for us. I think we're in some pretty good form with the ball so coming up against Redan's batting line-up, it's a good situation for us to be in," he said.

"We know that we virtually have to be perfect from now on to the end of the year for us to make finals ... so we're going to be making sure we give 100 per cent for the rest of the year to try and give it a good nudge later on."

Nolan said his side's batting had not been up to scratch as of late and was an area of focus.

"Our batting's sort of letting us down at the minute, if we can fix our batting up, our bowling's obviously going well, but we want to sort of get our batting back on track and get some batters into form," he said.

The Roosters are sweating on the COVID-19 test results for two players. Nolan said the side would give them up till Wednesday morning to get them back and see if they are negative.

The biggest winners at the weekend, Napoleons-Sebastopol, tackles Wendouree in its second attempt at taking down the league leader's.

Since its round two loss to the Red Caps, Napoleons-Sebastopol has gone 6-2, including a season-best win over reigning premier's Darley.

What it will be hoping to avoid is a poor start with the bat, something that hampered its run chase against Wendouree earlier this season and at the weekend against Ballarat-Redan.

The Red Caps had the up-and-coming side 5-95 in response to their score of 251, a total Napoleons-Sebastopol eventually fell 100 runs short of.

Ballarat-Redan had Napoleons-Sebastopol 6-96 at the weekend, until Corey Hucker (56*) saved the side and led it to victory.

With seven rounds to play, Golden Point now finds itself in a must-win scenario.

Three games out of the top four, the hunt for finals is getting increasingly harder, made no easier by a match-up with Darley this round.

The sides enter the contest in differing form.

The Pointies come in in fine touch with the bat, making 182 in a 50-run loss to Wendouree at the weekend.

Darley impressed with the ball against Brown Hill, dismissing it for 109, but lost seven wickets on its way to making 111 in response.

Ultimately, every side wants to win on any given day, but Golden Point come in the desperate team in this clash.

A loss could see it fall four games behind the top four and finals all but ruled out.

Darley finds itself in a comfortable spot, a game-clear in second and just a game behind first-placed Wendouree.

With contests against sides in the chasing pack (North Ballarat and Buninyong) and East Ballarat to come, some good form entering this stretch would go a long way to making it a successful one.

From 3-5 to 5-5, Buninyong's fortunes have turned around in the past two weeks and Brown Hill presents the perfect opportunity to continue that on Wednesday.

It still remains on the outer from the top four by two games, but with third-placed Napoleons-Sebastopol facing a test in Wendouree, that gap could be reduced to one.

Another strong performance with the ball could set the game up, Brown Hill having scored over 150 just twice so far this season.

It was a winning formula when the sides met in round two, Brown Hill dismissed for 125, Buninyong running down the total in the 29th over.

Rounding out the round, Mt Clear welcome East Ballarat, both sides coming off losses at the weekend.

Preventing batting collapses is the order for both teams coming in.

Mt Clear was 3-105 chasing North Ballarat's 151, before it lost 7-18 to be all out for 123.

East Ballarat seemed destined to chase down Buninyong's 238 when it found itself 3-179.

A finish of 6-28 put an end to those hopes, the Hawks finishing 9-227 from its 50 overs.

Still two games clear in fourth, a win to East Ballarat keeps it comfortable in the top group, but a loss makes the remainder of the season a little bit more interesting.

North Ballarat: Mick Nolan (c), Leigh Lorenzen, Matthew Zakynthinos, Mitchell Nicholson, Sam Jackson, Brody Price, Dylan Price, Ashley McCafferty, Vikrant Dabra, Jordan Humphries, Jude McGuire

Ballarat-Redan: Chris Egan (c), Zac Jenkins, Jayden Hayes, Jack Riding, Ryan Aikman, James Doherty, Bailey Hosemans, Billy Jones, Max Riding, Riley Fisher, Matthew Aikman

Buninyong: David Ellis (c), Travis Parsons, Daniel Kitchen, Tyler Dittloff, Robert Hind, Bailey Ryan, Liam Brady, Liam Rigby, Rupinder Singh, Harrison Bond, Shean Vanderwert

Brown Hill: Ryan Knowles (c), Reece Wynd, Jason Knowles, Tom Bourke-Finn, Darcy Waller, Tom Appleton, Prabath Priyankara, Lincoln Koliba, Nathan Porter, Kento Dobell, Dean Romeril, Fraser Hunt, Samuel Leith, James Waller, Noah Steenhuis

Mt Clear: no team supplied

East Ballarat: no team supplied

Golden Point: Andrew Warrick (c), Joshua White, Lachlan Herring, Simon Ogilvie, James Lewis, Daniel McDonald, Jack Bambury, Riley Hucker, Joshua Pegg, Manjula De Zoysa, Andrew Falkner

Darley: Bradley Barnes (c), Rahmatullah Khwaja, Andrew Pickett, Brodie Ward, Mitchell Ward, Brodie Gellie, Ethan Thewma, Dilan Chandima, Hasitha Wickramasinghe, Madushanka Ekanayaka, Danza Hyatt

Napoleons-Sebastopol: no team supplied

Wendouree: Ryan Simmonds (c), Heath Pyke, Tom Batters, Lucas Argall, Sam Miller, Oliver Mahncke, Tristan Maple, Zack Maple, Liam Wood, Lakpriya Appuhamy, Mathew Begbie

Ballarat-Redan: Andrew Holton (c), Greg Wakeling, Matthew Sandford, Trent Moss, Tom Liston, Simon Allan, Jason Sculley, Paul Aikman, Kyle Hayes, Brett Mason, Jacob McFarlane, Jack Landwehr

Burrumbeet: Oliver Ross (c), Grant Bell, Aaron Wilson, Dean Mathews, Nick Martin, Tom Martin, Jordan Greville, Will Johnston, Michael Beaumont, Josh Wells, James Lindeback, Simon McCartin

Coronet City: Brad Dunbar (c), Mykel Smith, Jack McDonald, Grant LePoidevin, Brandon Anderson, Jayson Porter, Peter Porter, Geordie Adam, Allan Hayles, Toby Horton, Jared Guy

North Ballarat: Jason Crosbie (c), Nathan Hill, Ben Peverill, Brodie Bennett, Matthew Cations, Dylan Jellett, Brett Severino, Curtly Wilson, Aarron Sarra, Mohan Bandara, Rowan Moore, Pubudu Thuse

Dunnstown: Ben Collins (c), Matthew Hoy, Austin Murphy, Matthew Spezza, Paul White, Simon Lockyer, Adam Toohey, Jordan Britt, Aidan Murphy, Michael Matthews, Karan Makwana, Jaye Cahir

Buninyong: Stuart Squire (c), Mark Tanis, Levhi Givvens, Ethan Giri, David Hamilton, Darcye Moloney, Nick Willowhite, Cameron Gell, Luke Cole, Umer Qureshi, Jason Giri

Lucas: Brad Allan (c), Shane Lench, Damon Simpkin, Michael Kuiper, David HORWOOD, Russell Brookes, Nick Young, Nathan Achison, Linden Anderson, Michael Cameron, Jackson Hayes, Kayne Wilson

Napoleons-Sebastopol: Jack Goossens (c), Adrian Irvin, Aaron Balzan, Tarkyn Balzan, Seamus Dunne, Joshua Clarke, Peter Oakley, Samuel Hill, Lachlan Sheridan, Janath Tissera, Jesse Lloyd

Wendouree: Matthew Jones (c), Austen Prendergast, Liam Haydon, Daniel Cassidy, Aaron Johns, Cooper Andrews, Noah Ryan, Fraser Dix, Aniket Bhatt, Anthony Beacham, Tarran Kilcullen, Brock Reid

Mt Clear: no team supplied

Darley: Dayle Locke (c), Daniel Hynes, Jye Stephenson, Drew Locke, Liam Cornford, Joshua Murphy, Lane Havelberg, Rockey Hoey, Ryan Densley, Will Johnson, Miles Seager

Creswick: Ashley Coxall (c), Richard Palmer, Paul Phillips, Jason Jones, Matthew Antonio, Justin Robertson, Luke Thomas, Rohan Flowers, Cameron Shaw, Sahil Sharma, Jayden Robertson, Mitchell McDonnell

VRI Delacombe: Michael Knight (c), Jason Smith, Andy Bennett, Anthony Creati, Jeromy Johnston, Cameron Egan, Benjamin Tuovinen, Liam Moon, Nicholas Cooper, Neil Cooper, Danyel Attard, Darcy Dhillon

Golden Point: Laurence Parker (c), Nick Smith, Patrick Clark, Joshuah Belleville, Alonzo Soloman, Jake Klein, Noah Maggi, Christopher Delaland, Paul Frary, Ben Harris, Jayke Mackay, James Maggi

Brown Hill: Vipin Kumar (c), Ben Sheard, Byron Wynd, Pattin Tausif, Tom Steenhuis, Kento Dobell, Steve McIntyre, Nick Cochrane

East Ballarat: Shane Gray, Luke Hodgson, Mitchell McKee, Joseph Ashmore, Oscar Pryor, Max McMahon, Josh Smith, Stuart Manford, Abhilasha Rodrigo, Tony Begbie, William Brand, Lachlan Morganti

If you are seeing this message you are a loyal digital subscriber to The Courier, as we made this story available only to subscribers. Thank you very much for your support and allowing us to continue telling Ballarat's story. We appreciate your support of journalism in our great city.

Have you signed up to The Courier's variety of news emails? You can register below and make sure you are up to date with everything that's happening in Ballarat.