Bay defy off-field odds to claim hard-fought victory

Hamish Bidwell HAWKE'S Bay have been great frontrunners in the Hawke Cup.
If they can get on a roll early, they'll demolish any opposition. Equally, when they've faced adversity or there's been something important at stake, most of the team has gone missing in action.
Given their history, they were almost a certainty to choke during the weekend's Zone Two Hawke Cup final against Manawatu at Fitzherbert Park in Palmerston North.
For a start, a big stockcar meeting in Palmerston North meant every bed in town was taken and they had to stay half an hour away in Sanson - and not in the same motel either, with some in one place and the rest in another.
When they got to the ground they were inserted on a green top and soon found themselves 40 for five. They recovered to make 257 but with Manawatu 210 for six midway through yesterday's second day, it looked as though the home's side's fat lady could begin her vocal exercises.
But, under the coaching of Dale Smidt, this Hawke's Bay team is a different mob. He maintains he hasn't done anything special with them but, whatever he's doing, it's working.
Last season, they wouldn't have won this match, which is what they did when Scott Findlay snared a brilliant diving catch at third slip to secure a 19-run victory and a challenge for the Hawke Cup on March 1-3.
"At 40 for five, we'd dug ourselves a huge hole, even if we had copped a couple of terrible decisions," Smidt reflected after the match.
The one that accounted for Tim Lythe will remain in the memory. Having taken a big stride down the wicket, he was hit on the front pad and the ball ballooned back to the bowler.
Manawatu went up for a hopeful lbw appeal, which the umpire turned down.
It was then that the mid-on fieldsman piped up and reckoned he was actually shouting for a bat-pad catch. That was good enough for the ump, who over-ruled his own not out and sent Lythe on his way.
"It was just bizarre but we got ourselves to 112 for seven at lunch," Smidt said.
"Then Ricky Breakwell went out and smashed it and changed the game's momentum.
He got 47 and then Scotty [Findlay] put on 36 for the ninth wicket with Tank [Kurt Richards] and 57 for the last with Mitch [McClenaghan]."
Findlay was last out for 71 and at least gave the team something to bowl at.
At 15 for three, 40 for four and then 101 for six, it looked like 257 might be ample.
That soon turned to 210 for six and Smidt was panicking. "We got off for lunch and were able to have a talk about things. We knew we had the new ball coming up and that that would be important," he said.
"The break gave us a chance to re-focus and make a bit of a commitment to each other that it was going to be now or never."
McClenaghan and Ben McLennan each took wickets after the break, before a rain delay at 222 for nine. But when McClenaghan took his sixth wicket it was all over and Hawke's Bay could look ahead to playing the winner of this weekend's match between holder's Taranaki and Canterbury Country.