Coach Colin Schaw has come away from Tauranga Domain during the long weekend much wiser about a few things he would like to keep close to his chest.
"I know now who to take in as allrounders in the mix to give us seven batsmen in the line up," says
Schaw after a two-wicket victory in a rain-interrupted 106-over, red-ball match against Hawke Cup holders Bay of Plenty on Saturday and a wicket loss in a white-ball 50-over affair against the same side, albeit with a few changes in the hosts' line up, on Sunday.
The Pay Excellence Hawke's Bay senior men's representative team played the two matches in the hope of tweaking their systems in preparation for the Kirk Cup match in a fortnight before hosting Horowhenua-Kapiti at Nelson Park, Napier, for the opening round of the Zone 2 qualifying Furlong Cup match on November 12-13 in the Central Districts region for the right to challenge for the Hawke Cup.
The Bay experimented with their top order with South African import allrounder GC Pretorius opening their batting with Sri Lankan Indika Senarathne, amid other options that Schaw is mulling over.
Captain Jacob Smith withdrew due to an arm injury on Sunday and nominated Angus Schaw to take over the reins on the field.
Coach Schaw wasn't too concerned about the results but more the process.
"It was disappointing that most batters got starts on Saturday but didn't finish so it's something we're working on."
On reflection he didn't rate the wicket, labelling it "two paced".
However, rain robbed them of an hour's play so he lauded his troops for chasing down BOP's total of 181 all out in 49.5 overs with 186-8 in 48 overs.
NZ under-19 rep Christian Leopard was the pick of players with 4-49 from a dozen overs and left stranded on an unbeaten 36 in the middle order.
Legspinner Pretorious took 3-36 and Schaw 2-37 from eight overs each.
Smith (21 runs), Rupert Young (21) and Schaw (27) were the batsmen who didn't have a Gaza Strip mentality.
"They were two very good sides and BOP had quite a few changes to their 50-over game so it was a good challenge and a very worthwhile trip for us," says Colin Schaw.
In Sunday's 50-over match, the visitors were 226-9 with opener Senarathne top scoring with 49 and newbie Bradley Schmulian, of Auckland, adding 42 runs and Leopard 35.
Seamer Ben Stoyanoff, who didn't play on Saturday because of work commitments, took 3-27 from 10 overs while Schaw took 2-33 from 10 overs and legspinner Schmulian claimed 2-28 from four overs.
The Property Brokers premier men's club competition started late on Friday but all three matches were abandoned because of a wet outfield at Nelson Park.
Tauranga Domain at the weekend:
Rain-affected 106-over match on Saturday:
Toss: BOP won, batted.
BOP 181 all out in 49.5 overs (Ben Musgrave 58, Jono Boult 50, Gurwinder Singh 23no; Christian Leopard 12-49-4, GC Pretorious 8-36-3, Angus Schaw 8-37-2) lost to Hawke's Bay 186-8 in 48 overs (Jacob Smith 21, Rupert Young 21, Angus Schaw 27, Christian Leopard 36no; Brett Hampton 10-36-2, Jono Boult 10-19-4, Gurwinder Singh 10-32-2) by 2 wkts.
Sunday's 50-over affair: Hawke's Bay 226-9 (Indika Senarathne 49, Bradley Schmulian 42, Christian Leopard 35; Brody Gilroy 2-35, Peter Drysdale 2-41, Brett Hampton 2-53) lost to Bay of Plenty 227-9 in 47 overs (Brett Hampton 88, Jono Boult 45, Matt Golding 24; Ben Stoyanoff 10-27-3, Angus Schaw 10-33-2, Bradley Schmulian 4-28-2) by a wkt.