Central Districts Stags bowler Blair Tickner in action against the Auckland Aces last season.
Central Districts Stags bowler Blair Tickner in action against the Auckland Aces last season.
The Central Districts Stags need no motivation to finish their season on a high in Napier from tomorrow, according to coach Heinrich Malan.
"Everyone's clued up and it's a good way for the players to see where we're at against the winners," Malan said of his Devon Hotel-sponsored troops whohost the Mondiale Auckland Aces in the final round of the four-day Budget Rental Plunket Shield at McLean Park.
The visitors etched their name on the shield at the weekend when they drew with the Wellington Firebirds at the Basin Reserve in the penultimate round of the first-class cricket competition. It was the second title this summer for the Aces who also claimed the bragging rights to the lucrative Georgie Pie Super Smash Twenty20 title in the 2015-16 season.
The William Young-captained CD, who retained the limited-overs Ford Trophy, have won only one shield match this summer and are coming off a stalemate as well against the SBS Bank Otago Volts in Dunedin on Saturday.
Malan reiterated that for his young charges it was an opportunity to enter the CD record books with runs and wickets in the quest to step up to the next level of cricketdom.
"We've had a day off today, so we'll train tomorrow [today], so there's been a lot of communication on what to work on before we hit the ground running on Wednesday," he said.
In the only change in the 12-man squad, bowler Kurt Richards is unavailable due to work so fellow Hawke's Bay seamer Blair Tickner returns to the fold from bereavement leave.
Seth Rance, Ben Wheeler. Andrew Mathieson, George Worker and Bevan Small are nursing injuries but Rance and Small will play in the UK.
