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It is old-school cricket but a new experience for a lot of the young players when the Porter Hire Premier 1 red ball two-day final begins at Victoria Park tomorrow.
After years of the undermanned Whanganui grade playing a hybrid of traditional cricket under a one-day format, St Johns Tech and Matt Burke Engineering Marton Saracens will meet over the next two Saturdays for a full match under Hawke Cup rules with 100 overs per day, four innings to bat, and no restrictions on the number of overs the strike bowlers can deliver.
Marton, as top qualifier on bonus points, will win the title in the event of a draw or tie, but Tech manager Andrew Lock thinks a stalemate is the most unlikely outcome.
"It could be interesting because it's a whole new scenario for a lot of these guys.
"It's a question of mental fortitude to bat it out. But it's the same for both sides.
"I don't see two days being a factor - someone will win outright.
"There's so many overs to be played over two days, we struggle to use our 50 overs in one."
Tech enjoyed a three-wicket victory over Marton last weekend, thereby knocking Property Brokers United out of contention on bonus points.
It means they will go for their second championship of the season after winning the inaugural Coastal Challenge Cup competition in January, despite the fact they were comfortably beaten by United in every format this summer.
"Every team has a bogey team and United must have been ours for sure," said Lock.
"But at the end of the day, you're judged by who wins finals."
Marton captain Dominic Rayner would also like to put the seal on their summer by claiming a second title to go with their combined Whanganui Twenty20 competition win last month.
Having hammered United two weeks ago with aggressive cricket, he felt a similar approach will work even if a number of the team are not used to pacing themselves for a long day at the crease or in the field.
"There's four of us who have played reps before. I think it's just go out there and have a crack for the game. Play as we usually do, bat as long as we can," Rayner said.
The dangermen to be aware of are obviously the twin pace attack of Ross Kinnerley and Nick Harding - Rayner acknowledging it would be smart to see them off and then look to open up against Tech's second and third change bowlers.
"Last week we tried to attack Ross and Nick too much."
However, Lock pointed out that Caleb Greene, Jessica Watkin and the veteran Chris Friedel can hold their own.
"You make that mistake and [Friedel will] get you and everyone knows it."
From Marton's point of view, spinner Bryant Galpin got three-for last weekend and proved in Hawke Cup he can bowl for long spells on Victoria Park, while Rayner and Dan Ford can be accurate on their day.
In the quest to find someone to bat the key anchor innings, both sides have lost candidates from last weekend as Marton are trying to replace Scott Oliver, while Tech won't have Kane Watkin, who top scored with 45 in the previous match and took 4-34.
"Kane did a good job for it last week and someone's got to put their hand up for it."
Tyler Lock will return from his Achilles injury to replace Watkin, meaning brother Dominic has to keep playing on with his broken thumb.
"He's in " I don't know what he'll be doing, but he's in."
-Likely teams are:
Marton: Dominic Rayner (c), Hamish Harding, John McIlraith, Dan Ford, Josh Trillo, John Anthony, Chris Rayner (wk), Bryant Galpin, Dane Slako, Liam Mcaleese, one to be named.
Tech: Sam Roebuck, Caleb Greene, Nick Harding, Calum Coker, Bevan Hunter, Jessica Watkin, Tyler Lock, Ross Kinnerley, Dominic Lock, Chris Friedel, Tim Czerwonka.