Inside Word: Siddons eyes JLT Cup glory

Twice runners-up in the past three seasons and with one of the most settled XIs in the competition, South Australia coach Jamie Siddons is unashamedly setting high expectations heading into this month's JLT One-Day Cup.

"If we don't lose any players to the Australian team, my expectation is we win it," the Redbacks mentor told cricket.com.au. "That's always the case, whether we've got players missing or not."

Most teams in all sports are bullish heading into a new season, but Siddons’ confidence is well placed.

The Redbacks lost the competition final in 2015 and 2017 to strong NSW and Western Australia sides respectively and only missed the playoffs in 2016 due to an unfortunate misunderstanding of the rules that saw them throw away a chance of victory and a spot in the knockout stage.

They've won 60 per cent of their games in those three years and have done so with a settled side that, international selection and injury pending, will take the field again this year.

"On paper, personally I think we're as strong as anyone with all the Test players away (for Australia's tour of the UAE)," Siddons continued.

"We should be competitive and in a good place come finals time. Make the top two, make the final and then it's a 50-50 battle.

"I'd expect us to step up at times and be good enough to make the top two."

A settled XI

South Australia’s likely XI for their tournament opener against NSW on September 20 will feature eight players with ODI experience.

Skipper Travis Head, wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey and fast bowler Kane Richardson were all part of Australia's limited overs tours in the winter while spinner Adam Zampa as well as quicks Joe Mennie and Dan Worrall have played ODI cricket in the past two years.

Throw in batting veterans Callum Ferguson and Tom Cooper as well as gun young opener Jake Weatherald, and it's easy to see why Siddons believes his side is one of the strongest in the competition.

Especially given states like Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria will be without their best players due to international duty.

 "I'm thinking there's an outside chance of one, probably Head," Siddons said of the prospect of losing his players to Australia's Test tour of the UAE.

"So we won't have to make too many changes.

"We haven't changed our side a lot (in the past three years) so I think we've had some really good experience in some tough situations to go about tournament play.

"We've got a really good blend of good one-day players now so we're pretty confident.

 "I don't think there'll be any bolters (in our side). A guy might go out because he's a little bit out of form and one might come in. But there won't be much change at all (from last year)."

The underrated star

Their side is full of international talent, but one man who has been key to South Australia's recent success is relatively unknown allrounder Cameron Valente.

Heading into just his third season of domestic cricket, the 24-year-old will be looking to replicate his form of the past two years that included a competition high of 15 wickets in 2016 and two impressive centuries batting at No.7.

Alongside an international quality attack featuring Richardson, Mennie, Worrall and Zampa, Siddons believes his core group of bowlers blends well with a dynamic top order led by Weatherald, Carey, Head and Ferguson, who has enjoyed an impressive northern summer in English county cricket.

"I think Valente has been the standout allrounder in the competition with bat and ball," Siddons says.

"He's been making hundreds and doing really good stuff in the middle overs with his slower balls that nobody has been able to get hold of yet.

“We’ve got a really consistent formula in the first 10 overs (with the ball), and then at the death.

"Head and Cooper are able to bowl some off-spin overs if the left-handers come out to bat and Zampa is a world-class spinner.

“We need to make sure we put scores on the board because we know our bowling team can do the job. And we also know if our bowlers don’t do the job, our batsmen are quite capable of chasing down any score we’re chasing on a good day.

“A bit like Queensland, we think we can win from any situation and we’ve done that quite regularly (recently) when we’ve been down and out we’ve still managed to win a close game. That comes with experience playing at that level with a pretty similar team.”