Willow Cuts opener Ryan Shephard is confident his side can book their place in tomorrow's Twenty20 final with victory over St. George's in today's semi at the National Sports Centre.

Cuts meet St. George's in one of two East versus West clashes with the second semi-final to be contested by Somerset and St. David's.

For Cuts, whose only loss this season came against champions St. David's, there would be nothing sweeter then to get revenge over the reigning champions should they reach the final.

First up for the West Enders, however, are St. George's, a team who Shephard believes could be undone by his side's game plan.

"We are going to approach the game as we always do, which is to win," said Shephard. "In terms of the batting and bowling, we are looking to score anything above 175 and look to restrict them to 140 or less."

At the beginning of the competition, Cuts made it clear that they were looking to give fringe players an opportunity to showcase their talents and have fun.

Now the stakes are much higher, the veteran batsman admitted their side will take the competition much more seriously.

"They (St. George's) played after us in that match at Somerset Cricket Club a few weeks back and we got a chance to look at them and saw how they got on and so forth, so we feel we have a good shout at making the final.

"We know their bowlers and have formulated a strategy in order to get on top of them early and apply pressure.

"When the tournament started we didn't have full focus on the winning aspect, we simply wanted to go out and have fun.

"Now that the stakes are a bit higher we will look to make the final and win the competition, but the fun won't be taken out of the game from our standpoint.

"With that being said, we don't go into any game not looking to win."

St. David's president Aaron Lugo earlier in the week stated that his side were determined to lift the title for a third succesive year . . . not for the club's sake but for the entire St. David's community.

His team meet Somerset today and Lugo says that after having beaten them in the inaugural Twenty20 competition, it should prove be a fascinating match.

"It is important that we perform well given we are the two-time defending champions and are looking to make it to the finals again," said Lugo.

"We have a community behind us as well.

"There isn't one person who doesn't back us when we play, whether it's football or cricket, so we do this for them as well.

"Somerset is one of our favourite teams to play.

"We beat them in the final two years ago and they were unbeaten until a few weeks back so it will be an interesting game and I'm sure fans of both teams won't be disappointed."

Cuts clash with St. George's at 10.30 a.m., with the second semi-final is scheduled to begin at 2.30 p.m.

Tomorrow will see the third-place play-off match starting at 10.30 a.m., while the final will begin at 2.30 p.m,, both matches at the NSC.

n The Evening League's Twenty20 knockout final will be held at Shelly Bay today.

Second Division champions Top Shottas face PHC in the opener at 10 a.m. while Premier Division champions Police take on Fine Leg Byes at 2 p.m.

Also today, the postponed Warrington (Soup) Zuill memorial match will take place at St. David's Cricket Club, starting at 9.30 a.m.