Cricket: North's butter-fingers frustrate coach

Northland coach Stephen Cunis

Catching practice is on the agenda for the Northland men's cricket side this week after six catches were dropped in one day against Hamilton at the Cobham Oval, in the process losing first-innings points.

Coupled with the frustration of the poor fielding effort, four of Northland's best batsmen were dismissed for not many thanks to some sharp Hamilton bowling.

Northland coach Stephen Cunis wasn't happy with the number of dropped catches and thought they probably added about 70 runs to Hamilton's first-innings total - which made all of the difference.

Chasing 185, Northland fell 17 runs short of gaining the points during the weekend's game - adding to Cunis' displeasure.

"It was a frustrating two days," he said. "It was helter-skelter and frustrating to watch. After day one we sat down and said 'let's have a think about what we did'.

"We were confident, we were almost there, but we just weren't quite aggressive enough.

"We just didn't quite have the confidence to be pro-active ... If you get a half-volley or one on the pads you've got to have the confidence to play a shot and cash in."

While unhappy with the result on Sunday, Cunis wasn't hanging his team out to dry. Instead, he put it down to being just one of those days.

"It's not all doom and gloom, it was just a poor display of catching. There certainly will be catching practice this week, though.

"I talked to the boys ... it's not to do with a lack of training, it's more the concentration.

"We have a strong team and no one took that for granted, the effort was there - you can't fault it - but the execution wasn't there.

"If you've got guys not putting the effort in then that's concerning but it's not the effort that was the problem."

The result changes little in Northland's standing in the Fergus Hickey competition and Hawke Cup Challenger series, they still top the challenger ranks.

Northland's next game comes as part of a one-day tournament next month.