Cricket: Ryder's back in mix for CD after Hong Kong stint

Jesse Ryder (right) and Dane Cleaver share a rewarding moment in Plunket Shield cricket. PHOTO/FILE

Jesse Ryder returns to the Central Districts mix when they host the Wellington Firebirds in Napier in the Plunket Shield match today.

The former Black Cap allrounder was expected to arrive late last night after a stint in the Hong Kong Sixes for the four-day, first-class match at McLean Park so uncapped Taranaki bowler and 12th man from the previous round Ryan Watson drops out.

CD captain William Young will be playing on a park that was last prepared for the abandoned one-day Chappell-Hadlee match amid surface flooding.

With the shield gone, Young said the Stags would play for pride in the remaining matches but rued missing out on points against ND Knights in the historic rain-abandoned pink-ball affair in Hamilton last week.

"We were in a very good position in that game so it would have been very nice to push for a result but that wasn't the case," he said.

Young said bowlers found the ball stayed shiny but kept its sheen for longer spells and ditto the seams when compared with the red ball.

"Unfortunately we only played four sessions but we couldn't draw too many conclusions," said the batsman who, like many domestic cricketers, see the merit in acclimatising to pink in preparation for test matches.

"It was different but exciting and breaks up the four-day season quite nicely so it keeps everyone on their toes and thinking about thing a little bit more so I think it's a positive thing."

The only difficulty they encountered was "twiddling their thumbs" until 1pm when they got to the ground.

Meals aside, they had a trying time unwinding to go to bed at 1am and then wake up as late as possible but in hotels breakfast deadlines are 10am.

"You just have to adjust to your body clock."

For the Firebirds, spinner Peter Younghusband comes in with Jeetan Patel on Black Caps duty. Michael Pollard and Matt Taylor drop out of 13.

BOTH TEAMS

■ CD STAGS: Greg Hay, Ben Smith, Will Young (c), Jesse Ryder, George Worker, Tom Bruce, Dane Cleaver (w), Ajaz Patel, Adam Milne, Seth Rance, Navin Patel, Blair Tickner.

■ WELLINGTON FIREBIRDS: Michael Papps (c), Brent Arnel, Hamish Bennett, Tom Blundell (w), Hamish Marshall, Matt McEwan, Iain McPeake, Stephen Murdoch, Luke Ronchi, Anurag Verma, Luke Woodcock, Peter Younghusband.

Match referee: Richard Hayward.
Umpires: Chris Brown and Garth Stirrat.
Scorers: Duncan Mitchell and Beverly Baker.