McDonald to lead Victoria's final hopes

Victoria will be without four of their best players for the FR Cup decider on Sunday, when they will try to break their final hoodoo having finished runners-up for the past three years. The Bushrangers are without their captain Cameron White, David Hussey, Dirk Nannes and Clint McKay, all of whom are with the Australia squad in New Zealand, while Tasmania are also missing Travis Birt for the same reason.

It has left Andrew McDonald to captain Victoria, who are hosting the final at the MCG for the third time in four seasons. The Bushrangers lost to Queensland in 2006-07 and also last summer, and they went down to Tasmania at Bellerive Oval in 2008-09.

They are likely to regain Rob Quiney, who will have a fitness test but is thought to have recovered from an adductor strain and has been added to the squad of 12 that beat Queensland last week. Victoria are chasing their first title since 1998-99 and are hoping to keep alive their chances of winning all three finals this summer, having already won the Twenty20 title and qualified for the Sheffield Shield decider.

The Tigers have eased the burden of losing Birt, their second-top run scorer this summer, by calling on the allrounder Luke Butterworth, who is back from injury. The batsman John Rogers has also been included in Tasmania's 13-man squad after he was left out of the group that beat Western Australia recently.

Victoria squad Chris Rogers, Aiden Blizzard, Brad Hodge, Aaron Finch, Rob Quiney, Andrew McDonald (capt), Michael Hill, Matthew Wade (wk), John Hastings, Damien Wright, Glenn Maxwell, Bryce McGain, Darren Pattinson.

Tasmania squad Tim Paine (wk), Ed Cowan, Michael Dighton, Rhett Lockyear, George Bailey (capt), Daniel Marsh, John Rogers, Luke Butterworth, Jason Krejza, James Faulkner, Xavier Doherty, Brendan Drew, Gerard Denton.