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Coach Garry MacDonald has been trying to exorcise the ghosts of previous matches but Canterbury's Shell Cup cricketers are still haunted by their nightmarish recent record against Northern Districts.

The two sides which have dominated limited-overs cricket will clash in tomorrow's semi-final at Hamilton, with the winner advancing to the final against Wellington at the Basin Reserve on Saturday.

MacDonald said yesterday he was trying to play down his team's poor sequence against Northern, and particularly its shock loss in last season's final at WestpacTrust Park.

On that occasion Northern recovered from 84 for six to set Canterbury a winning target of 185. Despite a poor start, Canterbury was within range at 117 for five until Northern medium-pacer Alex Tait took four wickets in one over.

But the Northern nightmares actually began when Canterbury's home match was abandoned early last season. Since then Northern has won all five games.

``I'm trying to deflect that aspect from our build-up, but most of the guys played and have long memories,'' MacDonald said.

Captain Gary Stead spoke for his team-mates when he confirmed the calamities of last season's final were still vivid.

``It's not something that has to be mentioned too often in terms of our motivation because the guys remember it. To be honest, it still hurts, but I'm sure it won't happen again,'' Stead said.

Canterbury is likely to field eight players from that match. Stephen Fleming is missing because of injury and Lee Germon and Michael Owens have retired. Northern's only defections are Bryan Young and Dion Nash, whose adopted Auckland was demolished by Canterbury in the minor semi-final.

Llorne Howell, recovered from his back spasms, returns to a Canterbury squad of 13. But a reuniting of Howell and Nathan Astle as opening batsmen will not automatically lead to the omission of successful replacement Mark Hastings.

Both MacDonald and Stead acknowledged that Hastings had all-round talents to back his claims for inclusion lower down the order.

Northern has retained the same team which lost to Wellington in the major semi-final.

``We want to win this thing and just get it out of the way once and for all with this ND crowd. We thrashed them in the trophy last year and now we want to put paid to them in the cup as well,'' MacDonald said.

Teams:

Canterbury (from): Gary Stead (captain), Nathan Astle, Llorne Howell, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Chris Cairns, Mark Hastings, Gareth Hopkins, Mark Priest, Warren Wisneski, Stephen Cunis, Shane Bond, Geoff Allott.

Northern Districts: Robbie Hart (captain), Michael Parlane, Hamish Marshall, Neal Parlane, Scott Styris, Mark Bailey, Matthew Hart, Daniel Vettori, Alex Tait, Grant Bradburn, Simon Doull, Graeme Aldridge.