BCA FIRST XI PREVIEW | Brown Hill's massive opportunity to pick up two wins

Led by a brilliant, but ultimately incredibly unlucky knock of 99, from Akila Lakshan and plenty of support from Martin Porter, who made 46 and Lahriu Gunasinhage's 43, Brown Hill has set East Ballarat a big chase of 246 for victory.

While the Hawks are without question a premiership threat again this season, they find themselves a little underdone in this one with top-order bug Harli Givvens among those who are missing this round.

Brown Hill's bowling has also been bolstered by the return Fraser Hunt who will launch a two-pronged attack with Tom Bourke-Finn as they lead the way in defending the solid total.

And if Brown Hill do manage to get the long-awaited points on Saturday, it wouldn't be a huge shock top see them give Wendouree a shake on Sunday as well.

It's a big double-header weekend for all the Ballarat Cricket Association this round, but first thing is to get the round six two-day matches out of the way.

Darley will be chasing a quick kill against Bacchus Marsh, resuming at 3-53 in the chase of 111. While Bacchus Marsh has the bowling to trouble the Lions, Darley should be able to get the remaining 59 runs needed.

The clash between Ballarat-Redan and Naps-Sebas looks delicately poised, but Naps-Sebas are definitely in with a big chance of securing just its second win of the season, having run through the Two Swords for just 161 last weekend.

But a shaky start has evened up the contest just a bit. Naps-Sebas will be buoyed by the fact that that last round's star for Ballarat-Redan Nathan Patrikeos - who took six wickets last start - isn't playing.

However they will have to deal with the likes of Matthew Aikman - who has both wickets to fall - and the in-form Jayden Hayes, who took the other four wickets last time out, if it is to get the total.

Wendouree will be chasing the outright win against Buninyong with the Bunnies to resume at 5-52, a long way behind Wendouree's 3-281 declared.

Cole Roscholler's 101 was the highlight of the previous week, but this week it will be up[ to the Red Caps bowlers to do the job, knowing they will need 15 wickets on the day.

Wendouree is capable of this, but what will be fascinating will be whether Buninyong can knuckle down tot he task this weeks to stave off the outright points. The past two weeks of batting have been very disappointing from the Bunnies, it's up to them to rectify the situation or the season will slip away.

Golden Point and Mount Clear are locked in a tight contest, but the Mounties will be somewhat content in knowing they are chasing less than 200 for a victory. At 0-22, the Mounties will be happy to resume in what could be a tight finish.

FIRST XI

Bacchus Marsh 111 v Darley 3-53, Ballarat-Redan 161 v Naps-Sebas 2-8, Golden Point 197 v Mount Clear 0-22, Brown Hill 245 v East Ballarat 0-4, Wendouree 3-281d v Buninyong 5-52

FIRST XI

Buninyong v Mount Clear, Brown Hill v Wendouree, Golden Point v Naps-Sebas, Darley v East Ballarat, Ballarat-Redan v Bacchus Marsh

TEAMS

Buninyong v Mount Clear

Buninyong - Harrison Bond (c), Brad Byrnes, Sean Mason, Campbell Palmer, Hudson Palmer, Prabath Ranaweera Koralalage, Bailey Ryan, Nicholas Schiemer, Mitchell Tierney, Naditha Tissera

Mount Clear - Ashley George, Kylan Jans, Thomas Le Lievre (c), Ajay Mada, Hugh McGregor, Joel Moriarty, Lachlan Payne, Aaron Sharp, Jacob Smith, Matt Ward

Brown Hill v Wendouree

Brown Hill - Tom Bourke-Finn (c), Nick Cochrane, Shashi Fernando, Lahriu Gunasinhage, Fraser Hunt, Jason Knowles, Ryan Knowles, Akila Lakshan, Nathan Porter, Viraj Pushpakumara, Byron Wynd

Wendouree - Tom Batters, Liam Brady, Tom Godson, Monty Maloney, Ash McCafferty, Mick Nolan, Sam Peeters, Heath Pyke (c), Cole Roscholler, Stephen Segrave, Liam Wood

Golden Point v Naps-Sebas

Golden Point - Darcy Aitken, Lachlan Anderson, Manjula De Zoysa, Andrew Falkner, Mohomed Feshal, Simon Ogilvie, Joshua Pegg (c), Lukas Pegg, Andrew Warrick, Daniel White, Joshua White

Naps-Sebas - No team supplied

Darley v East Ballarat

Darley - No team supplied

East Ballarat - No team supplied

Ballarat-Redan v Bacchus Marsh

Ballarat-Redan - Matthew Aikman David Carton, Chris Egan (c), Riley Fisher, Jayden Hayes, Zac Jenkins, Nathan Patrikeos, Max Riding, Connor Ronan, Randhir Sandhu

Bacchus Marsh - Connor Ascough, Taeje Baker, Angus Jones, James Lidgett, Alex Porter, Jack Powell, Nick Strangio, Jared Taylor, Armi Wakefield, Thomas Wardell (c)