Cricket: Rance out, Dudding in for CD

ON CHECK: Seth Rance will be touch and go for the game against Otago Volts in Palmerston North on Saturday as well. PHOTO/FILE

A calf strain has put Central Districts seamer Seth Rance out of the game against the Auckland Aces today.

"He'll probably be out for seven to 10 days so the weekend game in Palmy might be too close to call," said CD coach Heinrich Malan last night.

The William Young-captained Stags face the Aces at the Eden Park outer oval from 11am today in the round four Ford Trophy encounter.

Defending champions CD, in search of a third consecutive crown, then host the Otago Volts at Fitzherbert Park on Saturday in round five of the one-day domestic men's competition.

Heretaunga Building Society Cornwall seamer Liam Dudding comes in to the playing 12 at Eden Park.

Malan said it was a good opportunity for the young seam attack to step up with seven experienced bowling options injured.

"Ticks [Blair Tickner] has only played a handful of games and Navi [Navin Patel] has only played one and Duds will be making his debut so obviously we'll learn as we go," he said.

After a robust grand final-losing Super Smash T20 campaign, CD lost their opening two matches before winning the last round, away against Northern Districts Knights.
Malan said the win was not the perfect game.

"The batters need to make sure they give the bowlers something to bat at and, if we bat second, they must try their hardest to get across the line whatever the bowlers do for us," he said.

Apart from Joshua Clarkson, no recognised batsman has so far turned hisposition into the cornerstone of providing a platform for a match-winning innings.

Despite denials, it seems the Stags batsmen, in particular, are suffering from the hangover of underachieving in the T20 grand final loss to the Wellington Firebirds.

The forecast today is fine in the Big Smoke but, as Malan eloquently put it, anything can happen there in the space of half an hour.

He preferred to focus on the controllables and that included a fruitful training session yesterday in trying to make the most of the excitement that pervaded the team with the injection of a couple of fresh faces.

■ CD Stags: George Worker, Ben Smith, Jesse Ryder, William Young (c), Tom Bruce, Dane Cleaver (wk), Josh Clarkson, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Ajaz Patel, Blair Tickner, Navin Patel, Liam Dudding.