Jesse Ryder will be staying in Napier this winter to work on his fitness and form with the CD Stags coaching stable. PHOTO/FILE
Jesse Ryder will be staying in Napier this winter to work on his fitness and form with the CD Stags coaching stable. PHOTO/FILE
Allrounder Kieran Noema-Barnett has predictably returned to England for his county cricket campaign season but Jesse Ryder is staying back with the Central Districts Stags.
"I'm not sure [if Ryder's going to back to county] but he's keen to play as much cricket as he can for us so ifhe gets an opportunity to play [county] he'll look into that," CD coach Heinrich Malan said before today's four-day Plunket Shield match away against the Auckland Aces.
"At this stage he's looking forward to spending his winter in Napier to get some proper work to be 100 per cent fit to be in a state to form consistently," he said of the 32-year-old former Black Caps cricketer who played for Essex.
Last month, the left-hander posted a record opening-wicket partnership with George Worker in round one of the Ford Trophy (50-over) format after grappling with his injury demons.
However, injuries also have taken hold of the CD squad members with Black Caps Ben Wheeler, Liam Dudding, Ryan McCone, Doug Bracewell among those on the list.
"He's [Wheeler] showing the same old symptoms again so we've just decided to pull him from this game to make sure he has some pre-hab and rehab going to see if those symptoms will ease away," says Malan.
The William Young-captained CD are fifth on the six-team first-class table (28pts) after five rounds which had an intermission before Christmas to enable the white-ball formats to be played.
Ironically the Aucklanders are perched just above them on 41 points but the telling factor is the gulf in points - a difference of 13 points but one victory will yield 12 for just winning.
The number of drawn matches, as a result of inclement weather, is a testament to Northern Districts Knights leading on 52 points with just two wins. CD are winless while the hosts have registered one victory.
"We haven't played the best red-ball cricket, to be fair, but we've got a big challenge in the next few games to make sure we try to [collect] some points."
From Malan's perspective it goes without saying that life would have been a little easier had Young and his men registered a couple of wins.
"Those are the cards we currently have so we just have to make sure we work with that."
He expects the wicket at Colin Maiden Park to be low and slow, thus providing batsmen a good opportunity to occupy the crease for handsome totals.
No doubt, claiming 20 wickets will be equally imperative in claiming outright victory with left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel on a five-wicket-bag habit.
"Ajaz is going to be playing a big part and he picked up 25 wickets from four games ... so we just have to make sure we get other bowlers to help us out."
