Australian Test great Doug Walters says the outstanding success of Steve Smith shows that confidence is more important than having a traditional batting technique.
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Walters has been in Canberra for the past three days as part of the Australian Sports Camp and also helped out the Eastlake first-grade team and Marist.
A terrific batsman who scored more than 5000 runs at an average of 48 in 74 Tests, Walters lauded Smith for his recent performances with the bat in the 2-0 series win against India.
"He's done a fantastic job, he's done better than anyone could have hoped," Walters said.
"When he started a couple of years ago, he was unorthodox and [it was believed] he can't possibly succeed.
"I don't think [Sir Don] Bradman was the most orthodox player people saw and I certainly wasn't the most orthodox player, so why can't unorthodox players succeed?
"It's all about confidence, let's hope he keeps it."
Walters was a guest of the Eastlake club at its training session on Thursday night.
"The most important thing is to watch the ball," Walters said.
"Everyone thinks they watch the ball, but they don't.
"They only watch it until the bowler lets it go; then they have a guess. But after the ball bounces is the most important time to watch a cricket ball because it does strange things after it bounces."
Eastlake will be chasing quick runs and aim to set up an outright victory in its match with Ginninderra.
Eastlake will resume at 1-117, needing another 51 runs for first-innings points after Ginninderra was bowled out for 167 in its first innings.
ANU batsman Andrew Stead says his side can challenge for the two-day finals, with the bowlers given the job of gaining first-innings points against Tuggeranong.
Stead scored 124 for his first century of the season as ANU posted a competitive total of 320 at ANU North Oval last Saturday.
ANU is currently on the bottom of the ladder as the only team without a win in the Douglas Cup. But the 31-year-old Stead believes ANU is capable of staging a late charge to rise up the ladder.
"Tuggeranong this round and then our next three rounds we're playing teams that are either just inside the four or sitting just outside the four," Stead said.
"I don't think there's any reason why we can't win most of those games.
"It could come down to our last round game against Weston Creek Molonglo, and they will have Jono Dean back by then, which adds another element to it."
North Canberra Gungahlin (89 and 1-11) needs another 150 runs to force Wests/UC (5-250 dec) to bat again and avoid an innings defeat at Harrison.
Queanbeyan is likely to declare at its overnight score of 6-308 in its match against Weston Creek Molonglo at Stirling Oval.
