A disappointing President’s Cup campaign hasn’t dented Jacob Edmonds’ belief Mudgee can do well in the Country Shield.

The state-wide knockout competition begins on Sunday with Mudgee travelling to Orange for the second week in a row to meet Orange Colts.

This is Mudgee’s third season in the second tier country cricket competition.

They reached the semi-finals in their first year but were eliminated in round one last season by Dubbo Amaroo – Dubbo cricket’s second XI.

Despite their poor performance last weekend in the Mitchell cricket carnival, Edmonds said Mudgee could go as well if not better than what they did in 2012.

“I think we can get that far again but I thought we would go a lot better in President’s Cup too,” the skipper said.

“But I reckon we can, I think we can give it a good shake. 

“I think we can do well if we take our catches and bowl on the right side of the sticks.”

Dropped catches and inaccurate bowling aided Mudgee’s woes last weekend where they failed to win a match despite the hype they would be serious title contenders.

They hit rock bottom against Bathurst when they were bowled out for 40, and while they made a fist of things against Blue Mountains the next day with a total of 3-220, the mountain men reached the target with six wickets in hand.

“Sunday was more of an improvement on Saturday. Saturday was a write-off. We won’t worry about that game, we just have to put that one behind us,” he said.

“Bowling 26 wides on Saturday and 25 wides on Sunday doesn’t help too much. It doesn’t help at all.

“The talent is definitely there. I don’t know what happened [last weekend].”

Mudgee have made three changes to Sunday’s squad from the one that played at the President’s Cup.

Darren Snyder, Trent Bright and Michael Ford are all unavailable with Jamie Golden, Will Lindsay and Tom Lawson slotted in to replace the trio.

This will be Lindsay and Lawson’s debut for Mudgee in the opens competition.

Edmonds said he doesn’t know much about Sunday’s opposition.

“I talked to Matt Findlay [Orange cricketer] and he said they were a pretty young side,” Edmonds said.

“I think we can [win on Sunday]. You can’t be thinking about what happened in the past because if you do, you won’t be able to go forward. We have to put that one behind us and tackle Sunday head-on.”

The match will be played at Orange’s Riawena Oval on Sunday at 10am.

Mudgee’s team bus will be leaving McDonalds car park at 7am.

MUDGEE: Jacob Edmonds (c), James O’Brien, Cameron Cox, Steven Knight, Will Lindsay, Troy Kenny, Hayden Cox, Mark Bennie, Jamie Golden, James Ford, Nick Chapman, Tom Lawson.

Mudgee District cricket Saturday’s fixtures:

Division one (round two):

Woolpack Hotel v McDonald Lawson Bulls at Victoria Park (Mudgee).

Paragon Hotel v Lawson Park Hotel at Cahill Park.

Division two (round three):

Mudgee Home Decor v Woolpack Hotel at Walkers Oval 2.

The Mudgee v Paragon Hotel at Walkers Oval 1.

Lawson Park Hotel v Federal Hotel Hawks at Glen Willow.