Cricket: Knights to remember but was day worthy of T20 grand final?

It's a case of Super Smash T20 deja vu for CD but this time at Seddon Park, Hamilton, on Saturday. Photo/Photosport

At the school of hindsight just about anyone can be a dux, if you ask Central Districts Stags coach Heinrich Malan.

"Hindsight's a perfect science. The wicket was obviously a lot slower than what a normal wicket would have been but we back ourselves to get out there to play some creative cricket, so that's definitely how we want to play but, unfortunately, it didn't come off today," was Malan's post mortem after the Northern Districts Knights flogged the Stags by nine wickets in the Burger King Super Smash Twenty20 grand final in Hamilton.

CD captain William Young had won the toss and padded up but the side could only post what can best be described as parking meter money — 99-8 in their 20 allotted overs, before three ND batsmen chased it down in just 8.5 overs, including 18 fours and two sixes.

The pre-match talk was about sticking to their mantra of aggressive batting and wicket-taking play but the Seddon Park strip was definitely on a different wavelength.

Only Black Caps opening batsman George Worker, who had alluded to a used pitch before the game, seemed to be making an effort to adapt with a CD top score of 37 runs, as the other top six batsmen looked bereft of ideas, although Dane Cleaver, on TV replays, didn't look like he had offered an edge.

"The newspapers in the morning, I'm sure, will have Cleaver caught [Tim] Seifert, bowled [Ish] Sodhi for 10 on the scoreboard," Malan said when asked if he was out.

Frankly the Stags bowlers must be absolved of any blame because they simply had crumbs to work with, after turning the game around from another sub-par total in the eliminator final last Wednesday to upset the Auckland Aces.

It was a cruel way for the bowlers to end their T20 campaign considering Blair Tickner was the highest wicket-taker (21), with fellow seamer Seth Rance and spinner Ajaz Patel third equal on 13 scalps with Andrew Ellis.

For that matter, there were green shirts in myriad statistics — Young second-highest run scorer (331), Jesse Ryder seventh (255); Tom Bruce second equal on number of sixes (16), Young fourth on 15, Ben Wheeler and Ryder (13) sixth equal; Ryder fourth in most boundaries (27), Young and Cleaver (24) eighth equal, Worker 10th (23); Ryder (84), Young (79) and Worker (79) as the seventh to ninth highest scorers in a match; 12th man Christian Leopard had the second highest run rate (195.92), Bruce eighth (164.96); Cleaver had the most catches (12), four ahead of the second place-getter, Dean Brownlie; injured Adam Milne had the best dot-ball percentage (50) with Tickner fifth (43.68).

But somehow you get the impression the boys would have given them all away to exorcise the demons of last summer when they lost the grand final to Wellington Firebirds in almost similar circumstances in New Plymouth.

Perhaps the biggest question from the loss to ND is, how prepared were CD for a slower wicket?

If Patel is the only specialist spinner do the Stags need at least another tweaker of his ilk?

If not then there's an argument for more overs for part-timers, such as Bruce and Worker, to become game-changers akin to Anton Devcich, whose figures suggest he's a genuine allrounder, although how Sodhi can't make three formats for the Black Caps befuddles.

The overriding factor is that T20 is a lottery at best so that shortcoming shouldn't eclipse CD's prowess in the one-day Ford Trophy and four-day Plunket Shield campaigns.

Malan said they had done some hard work to put themselves into a position to again win the crown but to no avail.

For the record, the $80,000 champions' purse wasn't uttered once in the CD camp.

"It's a pretty hard thought to swallow at the moment and the boys are pretty disappointed," he said. "The one thing that was said in our camp was to put right the result of last season."

CD batsmen, he felt, had found catching hands while ND counterparts had found gaps.

All the above, though, doesn't detract from the Knights earning the right to home advantage in the grand final and, presumably, their groundsman had done a stellar job of unsettling the batting and bowling of CD.

Malan agreed but made a pertinent point on what is a hit-and-giggle entertainment package for the great unwashed.

"I think the most disappointing thing about it was that it wasn't a spectacle you'd expect from a grand final."

For him a typical T20 offering constitutes a run fest but he also understands ND preparing a wicket that negated one of the best domestic seam attacks in the country.

"They have a very clever understanding of their conditions because they managed to bowl pretty well as well against one of the best batting line-ups.

"They've outplayed us and deserve to win on today's performance," he said, attesting to how five teams were in the running for playoffs in the final two rounds.

Malan was proud of his men's resolve to put themselves into positions to win games and consistently making playoffs which meant victory was around the corner.

"In the last four years we've played in four finals but, unfortunately, gone across the line twice."

Most of the Stags, he said, were club cricketers who rose to the demands of domestic cricket and some were now representing their country, so more silverware was a realistic expectation.

CD now turn their attention to the resumption of the one-day competition, travelling to Colin Maiden Park to face the Aces in round four this Saturday.

The Stags are on the top rung of the ladder on nine points, one above the Aces, Otago Volts and ND.

In the shield campaign, CD sit three points below leaders Wellington after five rounds.

That competition will resume on March 1 with the Stags hosting the Volts at McLean Park, Napier.