SA aim for upset in eliminational final

The one-day cup elimination final is set to be a tight contest despite Victoria's strong side being boosted by the return of Glenn Maxwell.

Surprise packets South Australia are backing themselves to topple powerful Victoria in Friday's one-day cup elimination final.

The winner of the day-night match at Sydney's Drummoyne Oval will tackle an all-international New South Wales in Sunday's final, and on paper Victoria are warm favourites.

The Bushrangers are littered with proven performers - Cameron White, Matthew Wade and James Pattinson among them while explosive allrounder Maxwell is also set to return after being omitted from their last match for disciplinary reasons.

But SA have been the revelation of the three-week tournament.

Without a single Test player in their squad, SA collecting four wins from six starts - two more than they managed across their previous two seasons.

"No one probably expected us to come this far, so it has been nice to show what we can do," said South Australia batsman Tom Cooper.

"We were a bit hit and miss early, but we have finished with a couple of strong performances."

Second-placed Victoria finished ahead of the Redbacks on net run rate, but it was SA who enjoyed a 17-run win when the two teams met last Friday.

"We take a lot of confidence from that (win) and we back ourselves all the way," said Cooper.

"Our spinners have been outstanding. The quicks have been so disciplined, suffocating the Vics the other day, so hopefully they can do that again.

"We go into the finals as underdogs, but hopefully we can pull off an upset.

"They have nine or ten blokes that have represented Australia, so I guess all the pressure is on them."

Victorian selectors face a poser as Maxwell's replacement Marcus Stoinis scoring a maiden century on Tuesday against Tasmania.

Victorian batsman Peter Handscomb downplayed talk of favouritism.

"We know we didn't bat well against South Australia in that (previous) match, plain and simple," said Handscomb.

"Our batting since has started to come through a lot stronger, and we feel like we are really hitting our straps come finals time.

"Our bowlers have been executing our game plan perfectly, and we know that if the batters do well, we will be a very tough side to beat."


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Source: AAP



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