If it had been a game of strip poker, the players would have been in their Sunday best not long after the dealer had shuffled the deck, cut the pack and dealt the cards.
Effectively, the Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags would have been struggling to even find a fig leaf to hide their nakedness.
That's how convincing the Auckland Aces were last night in their seven-wicket trouncing of the Stags in round eight of the HRV Cup Twenty20 match at Colin Maiden Park, Auckland.
Although CD won the toss, the table-topping defending champions only had to pull out a few trump cards and a couple of jokers to stifle the visitors for a paltry 90-9 in a rain-reduced 15-over affair.
The Stags' scoreboard had a sorry look about it - 5-47 a few balls past the half-way mark of their uneventful innings.
Black Cap batsman Martin Guptill inspired his teammates with deft fielding skills as the hosts claimed three run-outs.
A grinning Guptill coolly caught even a six off his teammate and undefeated batsman Anaru Kitchen (34 runs off 22 balls) at cow corner to rub it in.
"They are a good fielding unit," CD legspinner Tarun Nethula conceded but ruled out the drizzle, which delayed the start by 90 minutes, as a factor.
"None of that played a part because we just kept losing wickets and couldn't get away with any momentum in the game," said the Aucklander who was the last run-out victim to Aces wicketkeeper Gareth Hopkins on the last ball for a diamond duck (without facing a ball as No8 batsman Bevan Small ran after the delivery), copping a bit of banter from the grinning Aces skipper.
Perhaps the crucial loss was Peter Ingram (14 runs from 13 balls) who No3 Ross Taylor ran out, taking on Guptill's arm at mid-off with a suicidal single after Ingram and fellow opener Jamie How provided the impetus with a partnership of 22 before skipper How fell to Andre Adams for nine runs off 10 balls.
While left-arm off spinner Bruce Martin took some stick (2-21), the rest of the Aces' bowlers were clinical with no one going for more than seven runs an over. The disciplined unit didn't concede a wide, barring a no ball.
Left-arm orthodox Roneel Hira (whose surname stands for diamond in Hindustani) had the cutting edge with 2-16 off his three overs but Adams was the most frugal with 1-11.
Black Cap Kyle Mills (only one to gift a no ball) and Michael Bates claimed 1-18 each with Auckland skipper Hopkins not needing to call veteran import allrounder Azhar Mahmood for another over after he bowled 0-5 in his first.
Just like the other few games before last night, CD failed to perform as a unit.
Nethula spat some fighting words about CD's chances of making the final against the defending champions, who, ironically, last night cemented their spot in the 2011-12 final with the victory.
It would seem to be a gross injustice should the Stags make the final with only two wins to date but this format of cricket is akin to a lucky dip and no one would begrudge them if they did.
"I wouldn't say it's over because mathematically we could qualify," the Andrapradesh-born 28-year-old said, adding should the Canterbury Wizards slump in their remaining matches and the Stags clinch their remaining two then "anything can happen".
Damningly the second a team start relying on the outcome of other results to qualify then they start treading up a slippery slope.
Eventually even Nethula accepted that, in a competition which offers a lucrative opportunity for the winners with a trip to the Club Twenty/20 World Championship later this year.
"The guys are pretty disappointed after winning it [HRV Cup] two [summers] ago and making the final last [summer].
"The guys are really hurting but definitely not for a lack of trying," said Nethula, who was the pick of the CD bowlers with 2-12 off his three overs.
He took two successive wickets off the last balls of his second over, including opener Mahmood for 19 and No 4 Hokpins for a golden duck, but his hattrick delivery to No 3 Kitchen came precariously close to fruition.
Nethula revealed the eight-over-old ball wasn't offering him much turn and a wrong un wasn't an option.
"I had to file it past him and go for the pads for an LBW and I almost got through so I was pretty happy with that," said the man who has come under the media spotlight with Hira as possible successors to world-class veteran spinner Daniel Vettori in the Black Caps squad.
Nethula didn't want to be drawn into any talk of winning a showdown with former Aces mate, Hira, preferring to talk up his rival instead.
"Ronnie, I think, is quite different. He is well known as a limited-overs player and his stats from the previous four or five seasons is a proof of that," he said self-effacingly.
Feeling he had let himself and the Stags down in the loss to the Wizards last Sunday at Rangiora, the Heretaunga Building Society Cornwall premier player was simply happy to make a contribution to a bowling unit that had crumbled.
His father, a chemical engineer-cum-schoolteacher Sainath Nethula, is attending a funeral in their birth country of India but his girlfriend, Natasha Muthoo, and her family in Auckland had braved the rain to support him and CD.
"I get to see her every time we play in Auckland so that's good," said the man who CD coach Alan Hunt, also of Auckland, lured to play here.
Kitchen pummelled Doug Bracewell for successive sixes to bring up 91-3 with 27 balls to spare although the Black Caps allrounder did claim the prized scalp of Guptill for 18 runs.
It was baptism of fire for debutant Small who went for 18 runs an over in the first over to finish for 33-0 off two.
But veteran Michael Mason, of Palmerston North, who has found global fame with Freyberg club teammate Small on YouTube with a spectacular catch against the Northern Districts Knights, showed his prowess with 0-13 from two overs.
Veteran Jacob Oram was also tidy at eight runs an over but will have little to dwell on in The Cricket Show on Sky TV after his soft dismissal with the bat to Hira.
Nethula said CD wanted to finish their remaining matches on a high, taking the impending momentum into their one-day Ford Trophy and four-day Plunket Shield campaigns.
The Stags host the Knights at 5pm tomorrow at McLean Park, Napier, before welcoming the Wellington Firebirds at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, next Wednesday for their final game.
Both the T20 games will be televised live on Sky TV.