FORMER Warilla Sports cricketers Nic Maddinson and Adam Zampa are leading the NSW Blues cricket team's resurgence in both the Sheffield Shield and Ryobi Cup one-day competitions.
Maddinson, who enjoyed a successful 2011-12 season but has had a summer plagued by injury and poor form with the bat, has bounced back brilliantly.
He returned from injury for the Sydney Sixers during the Big Bash tournament and would have been an outside chance of returning to the NSW team.
However, in last week's Sheffield Shield match in Hobart, he plundered a brilliant 155, his third first-class century. The knock included 18 fours as the Blues ran down Tasmania's 6/425.
He backed that up in Sydney last Thursday, scoring a man-of-the-match-winning 85 against Tasmania, which included five fours and seven sixes.
Leg-spinner Zampa is quickly making a name for himself and has impressed many good judges.
He followed an impressive five wickets in his debut Shield game before Christmas with some impressive scalps in the Sydney Thunder's Big Bash campaign.
While he only took one wicket in the ensuing Sheffield Shield game, he dismissed former Australian player Mark Cosgrove and later bowled impressively to take 3/55 off 13 overs in the Ryobi Cup.
In the earlier Ryobi Cup match in Tasmania, he claimed the prized wicket of former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who was caught at the wicket by Peter Neville.
