T15 blast-off

ON THE FRONT FOOT: Gisborne Boys’ High School captain Drew Scott shows the aggressive style that Poverty Bay coach Lance Cairns wants to see in tomorrow night’s Walker Shield T15 Blast at Harry Barker Reserve, starting at 5.45pm. Scott will wear the colours of Bollywood Stars when they take on Smash Palace Bail Breakers. In the other game, Auto Tyres Eagles play Eastland Broncos. Picture by Paul Rickard

CRICKET

FORMER Black Caps test cricketer Lance Cairns knows all about limited-overs cricket. He played 78 one-day internationals for New Zealand, as well as 43 tests.

His advice to players taking part in tomorrow night’s opening round of the Walker Shield T15 Blast is simple: “Go after the ball from the first delivery”.

“The batsmen have to be aggressive but sensible.”

Cairns said he always felt for the bowlers in limited-overs games.

“You can bowl a good delivery that gets hit out of the ground and there’s nothing you can do about it.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow night. The auction night was brilliant and it’s refreshing to see players from different clubs playing together against regular-season teammates.

“It was great to see a crowd of around 45 come to watch the two games against Northern Districts Maori last weekend.

“It’s not a lot but it’s a start and hopefully we’ll get a few more along tomorrow night. It’s going to be interesting to see how players perform in teams who are different from what they are used to.”

Each T15 team will play at least six games at Harry Barker Reserve on Friday nights either side of Christmas.

The teams will wear coloured strips and use a pink ball.

Bowlers will have a maximum of three overs each, and four different bowlers must be used in the first four overs of each innings.

In those first four overs, only one fielder is allowed outside the 30-metre circle.