It was a day of twos for the Central Districts Stags on the return to red-ball cricket in Rangiora yesterday.
With rain robbing the match of valuable hours, the Stags won the toss and bowled for two sessions - 2pm to 4.10pm and 4.30pm to 6.30pm for a 66-over spellin the Budget Rental-sponsored Plunket Shield clash.
The William Young-captained side were 8-208 at stumps in the four-day, first-class affair at Mainpower Oval with No6 Tod Astle unbeaten on 22 and No10 Ryan McCone one not-out when they resume play this morning, weather permitting.
All bar one of the five bowlers claimed two wickets each.
Strike bowler Adam Milne was wicket-less but the most frugal at 1.18 runs an over from his 11 overs, including eight maidens.
Fellow Manawatu new-ball merchant Navin Patel, making his first-class debut, took 2-47. So did Andrew Mathieson (2-31), spinner Ajaz Patel (2-57) and Blair Tickner (2-56), respectively, in order of thriftiness.
But CD coach Heinrich Malan pointed out it was also a case of a two-edged scenario, not just the Stags' bowling.
"It also showed the wicket wasn't easy to bat on," Malan said, putting into perspective Canterbury left-hand opener Leo Carter's 101 runs from 165 balls in occupying the crease for 216 minutes that belied his age of 21.
"We bowled well at stages and, at other times, we didn't," Malan said, emphasising his bowling attack was still raw and would need to rectify the situation in the second bowling dig.
He expected his batsmen to be mentally tuned and exude patience when they ask for middle and leg today in what is forecast to be sunnier than yesterday.
