CRICKET: Good, bad and Barlow

HAMISH BIDWELL
The good news is that Mathew Sinclair escaped suspension at his Code of Conduct hearing in Gisborne last night. The bad is that Central Districts suffered their second consecutive eight-wicket defeat in the State Championship, as Northern Districts successfully chased their final target of 107 at the Harry Barker Reserve.
Sinclair had been cited for making a gesture as he walked off the field, having been adjudged lbw by umpire Gary Baxter late on day three of the match. Ordinarily, it wouldn't be the sort of thing that Stags' coach Graham Barlow found solace in, but this isn't turning out to be your average season.
"We've had a definite win there," Barlow said in reference to Sinclair.
"We're decimated and even among the ones that are still here, we've got a lot of walking wounded as well. If Skippy (Sinclair) hadn't been able to come up, then Brad Patton would've played and after that we're down to Duncan Cederman and Michael Taiaroa. With the bowlers, we're down to guys like Scott Baldwin. I tell you, it's been unbelievable," he said.
Barlow used just 16 players last season, as the team won this competition, as well as being finalists in the one-dayers. What he wouldn't give for that now.
"I'll remember that comment (about how few players he used) for the rest of my life. I tell you what, I won't be mentioning it again," he said.
"It's funny how things turn out. After our third game, against these guys at Lincoln, we set them 400 and our attitude was that 'we can afford to lose this game, because they won't be around at the business end'. As it's turned out, we're not and they are.
"In terms of yesterday, I said 'if this is all over by 12 o'clock, I'm going to be pretty pissed off'. In the end, we finished just before seven and almost survived the 115 overs. I couldn't really have asked more from them."