It's fair to say anyone watching the game, let alone cricketers and the coaching stable, would have been chanting incantations while threading their worry beads yesterday in New Plymouth.
The Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags' total (252 runs) looked anaemic at best on the postage stamp-sized Pukekura Park and then rain halted play at 40.3 overs with the Otago Volts requiring 55 from 57 balls to claim victory in the Ford Trophy preliminary final.
But when the rain ceased and the boys came out to play again, part-time left-arm spinner George Worker had aptly stifled any wag left in the visitors' tail for a 49-run victory. Oh and a berth in the grand final against the Auckland Aces at Colin Maiden Park on Sunday.
"Kruger wanted to get two overs out of the way from myself and Matty Thomas. He thought with the batsmen fresh it was good to get our overs out of the way early," Worker said last night of captain Kruger van Wyk, after taking the scalps of Bradley Scott and Jacob Duffy for a miserly run each in the space of three balls when play resumed about 20 minutes later to finish with the figures of 3-25.
The opening batsman, who is the competition's top run scorer with more than 500 runs, played down his bowling, albeit "starting well".
