LIFTOFF: CD seamer Blair Tickner's five-wicket bag yesterday was his maiden in any form of domestic cricket in the Super Smash victory over the Aces in New Plymouth. PHOTO/Paul Taylor
IN the world of mice and men, some things are best left unsaid in the undying hope of wisdom and progress in cricketdom.
Suffice it to say, the word was one Roscoe Taylor would do his talking with the bat and he did, fluently, after helping the Central Districts Stags to a 64-run victory at Pukekura Park, New Plymouth, yesterday.
It was a dialect that anyone, let alone the Black Caps stable, would have had no problems deciphering after a sublime knock in the top-of-the-table McDonald's Super Smash Twenty match as hosts Central Districts Stags retained their pole position for an outright lead.
Dropped from the Black Caps twenty20 squad for the ANZ International Series starting at McLean Park, Napier, on Tuesday, Taylor posted an unbeaten 82 runs from 41 balls, including four boundaries and eight sixes at a strike rate of 200 per cent.
The No 4 batsman also snaffled two catches to show his hands are just as reliable, as his illustrious records showed both at international and domestic level, before he returned to his major association side to get his eye back in following surgery a month ago.
It seems the surgeons have done a superb job on a condition called surfer's eye that caused him pain and discomfort a few weeks ago when Pakistan toured here.
For that reason Taylor didn't need to verbally translate his achievements although a post-match scrum prompted CD team manager Lance Hamilton to post out an audio to media.
Consequently, it was only fair to pass the post-match honour to a bloke called Ticks in the Stags' stable after he took a five-wicket bag to help dismantle Auckland's run chase after the visitors won the toss and elected to pad up.
It was Ruahine Motors Central Hawke's Bay seamer Blair Tickner's maiden five-wicket haul in any format at domestic level since he decided to return from Australia to his birthplace to carve a fulltime playing career.
His teammates gave him some ribbing about that after the game but it was no laughing matter.
It's a suicidal mission for bowlers in the T20 format but throw in Pukekura Park, which must feel like a GP's foyer at the height of an influenza epidemic, and their task transcends to almost mission impossible.
"Yeah, it's one of those games that twenty20 cricket is because one day it can be your day and the next it isn't," said the 23-year-old seamer who only signed a full contract with CD this summer.
"Sometimes you hang around in that area and one day it'll become your day and today was mine so I had to take advantage and came away with five wickets," said Tickner who took 5-19 from four overs which puts it in that "OMG" region with an economy rate of 4.75.
A bowler seldom has an inkling in T20 of not becoming roadkill but when he yielded a maiden over and then took the scalp of opener Glenn Phillips for 19 runs and conceded four, Tickner dared to believe.
" ... I just kept a cross seam and kept it simple and it worked," he said, emphasising the wicket was different to the OK Corrall shootout at the same venue in the gut-wrenching one-run loss to the Otago Volts.
He wasn't sure, if the coin had rolled CD's way, whether captain William Young would have bowled first on a wicket where CD rolled the visitors for 149 runs and had three balls to spare.
"The wicket was green because it was new so it was tennis-ball like and went past batsmen a little faster because the last time it was much flatter."
Not long before the 4pm start, rain had ceased and turned into a clear day.
Stags spinner Marty Kain was a notable omission with red-ball tweaker Ajaz Patel coming in as 12th man.
"He just tweaked his neck during training but the big pillows at [the hotel] will fix him up so he should be all right for the next game," Tickner said.
Watching Taylor take the driving seat during CD's innings of 213-5 in such variables was a sight to behold although history suggested the total wasn't insurmountable.
"He just anchored the innings and showed his class as the other batsmen just worked alongside him ... so, definitely, to get to 200 from where we were was awesome," he said.
It was No 6 Dane Cleaver who forged a fifth-wicket partnership with Taylor to bring up 100 runs in 45 balls before losing his wicket for 47 runs off 26 balls to a caught-and-bowled delivery from Donovan Grobbelaar.
The pre-match talk also was about Aussie import Luke Feldman, of Queensland, taking over the new-ball role in the absence of Black Cap Ben Wheeler.
The Queensland police officer 1-27 from 3.3 overs but Tickner said he was unlucky not to claim more scalps.
"He showed his class at death bowling so we're looking forward to him bowling for us again ... he'll be a great asset," said Tickner who himself played age-group representative cricket in Queensland a couple of summers ago.
"I told him before he got there [Pukekura Park] it's very small compared to what he plays in," he said of the Brisbane Heats seamer who will play one more game there.
Having an outright lead of four points on the table and two games in hand, the Stags are upbeat but still want to maintain their momentum before hosting the Canterbury Kings from 4pm tomorrow at the same venue.
For a team who were probably not in anyone's frame as contenders, does the favourites' tag sit comfortably with them now?
"Aww, we know we've got the team to do it and we're underrated and wouldn't have been called favourites but it's a nice feeling," Tickner said, mindful they didn' t want to get too far ahead of themselves with the playoffs looming.