Bay batsmen need to curb attack habit

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

POVERTY Bay face Northern Districts powerhouse Northland over the weekend and coach Lance Cairns’ prime concern is to see his side occupy the crease against quality bowling not seen in the local club competition.

Northland will be overwhelming favourites to win the two-day Fergus Hickey Rosebowl fixture at Hamilton but Cairns said he won’t drop players who don’t succeed.

He has previously stated he has a three-year plan to develop the team into a competitive side.

The players needed time together and exposure to high-quality opposition, he said.

Cairns wants to see players develop the mental side of the game and have a batting plan. It was important a batsman batted five or six hours, as three batsman tended to provide most of the runs in any cricket side.

The longer a batsman stayed at the crease, the easier runs came, he said.

That is a statement that will surprise no cricketer. But Cairns said his batsmen wanted to attack too much in a habit encouraged by a low standard of club cricket relative to the more populated cricket associations within Northern Districts.

He suggested The Herald give the players a friendly “rark-up”.

He referred to Scott Tallott (HSOB), who will open the batting tomorrow.

Bad deliveries came along far less often in rep cricket than in club cricket.

“But Scott is good enough to score runs against those fewer poor deliveries.”

David Salmon (HSOB) was the most technically correct batsman but had spent a lot of time out of the game.

Cairns had a lot of praise for pace bowler Mitchell Turner (Pirates). He was bowling well and had a great leg-cutter.

Turner had the ability to take the pressure off the bowlers operating at the other end, said Cairns.

Craig Christophers (OBR) returns to the side after some outstanding form in club cricket.

Cairns is looking forward to the fixture.

Northland, Hamilton, Bay of Plenty and Waikato Valley all have a chance of winning the companionship as they go into the final round.

Cairns compared Northland with other leading associations like Southland and Nelson for whom he had played for during his career.

“They always play hard and for each other. “I’ve got a lot of time for them but we will be trying.”,Poverty Bay: Danny Gibbs (c), Scott Tallot. Craig Christophers, David Salmon, Sam Singh, Alex Clare, Gary Singh, Ajay Kumar, Timoti Weir, Mitchell Turner, Sam Patterson.