THE strong position Strathdale-Maristians is in to press for outright points will have three teams looking over their shoulder on Saturday's final day of the BDCA home and away season.
Sitting an unfamiliar seven points outside the top four, Strathdale-Maristians needs an outright victory over White Hills to be any chance of forcing its way into the BDCA top four and play finals for a 14th-consecutive season.
The Suns have already achieved step one of their mission - they have first innings points locked away after bowling the Demons out for 124 in reply to their 7-267 scored off just 37 overs at Bell Oval.
With the Suns (39 points) to begin day two in a strong position to press for outright points, it turns the pressure up on Eaglehawk (second, 49), Sandhurst (third, 48) and Huntly-North Epsom (fourth, 46).
The Hawks, Dragons and Power all have the potential to be knocked out of the top four if the Suns secure the maximum points.
Barring a tie, one of Eaglehawk or Sandhurst has to lose given they are playing each other at Canterbury Park, with the Hawks having a score of 194 to defend.
Should the Suns win outright, they would leap over the top of Sandhurst by one point if the reigning premiers are beaten.
The Hawks have a 10-point buffer on Strathdale-Maristians, meaning an Eaglehawk loss and Suns' outright win would leave the two on 49 points, bringing percentage into the equation.
After last Saturday the Hawks' percentage is 1.16, while the Suns have already boosted theirs from 1.07 at the start of the day to 1.15.
Meanwhile, the key number for Huntly-North Epsom to keep its finals destiny in its own hands is 177 - that's what the Power needs to beat Bendigo United and lock up a top-four finish for the first time since 2011-12.
Anything under 176 and Huntly-North Epsom will instead be relying on White Hills to knuckle down and show some resistance to deny the Suns an outright win to hold fourth spot.
No doubt the MyCricket app is set for a heavy workload from 1pm Saturday.
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