Kendall?s kick at ?average? effort

Wairarapa senior men's cricket selector Dick Kendall wasn't mincing his words after their 70-run win over a Horowhenua-Kapiti XI in a limited-overs match played at Levin on Sunday.
Kendall was disappointed his side had managed to make just 220 runs against a "pretty average" opposition attack and was adamant that unless the specialist batsmen in the side were prepared to knuckle down and do the hard yards then success in the season's major assignments, the Hawke Cup elimination games, would be limited, to say the least.
"There were too many soft dismissals - far too many," he said.
"In fact, it's hard to remember any wicket which didn't fall into that category. A number of players got starts and then got out and we just can't afford to get into that habit. We have to do a lot better than that."
With would-be captain Sam Curtis a late withdrawal after suffering an ankle injury in a club game on Saturday John Peters took over the leadership role and he top scored with 39.
Other useful knocks came from Andy Dodd (32), Andy Roberts (22 not out) and Hayden Spierling, who hit two massive sixes in his 23.
An interesting sidelight to the Wairarapa innings was that the umpires awarded Horowhenua-Kapiti a 10?run penalty for batsmen running on the wicket.
It was the first time Kendall had experienced this rule being enforced and he said his players were "very surprised" at any penalty being imposed.
"There certainly wasn't anything deliberate about what we were allegedly doing, the penalty came out of the blue really," he said
"There were two or three warnings given but it was a case of batsmen not taking enough care rather than trying to gain any sort of advantage for us."
The big positive out of Sunday's match for Wairarapa was their effort in the field with their youthful attack excelling themselves and dismissing Horwhenua-Kapiti for 140, or more correctly 150 with the 10 penalty runs added on.
As can often happen in the limited-overs game where restricting runs can be as vital as taking wickets it was the least successful of the Wairarapa bowlers from a wicket-taking viewpoint who made the biggest impression.
Rathkeale College paceman Dougie Bracewell was brought into the attack at a time when the Horowhenua-Kapiti innings was progessing quite smoothly and while taking no wickets he conceded just seven runs from his first six overs.
"He (Bracewell) bowled a superb line. He slowed the scoring right up," Kendall said.
The most successful of the Wairarapa bowlers was Wairarapa College quickie Seth Rance who finished with 4-25 from his eight overs while Hayden Spierling took 2-20 from seven overs, Ben Hodder 1-29 from six overs and spinner Simon-Clinton-Baker 2-26 for five overs.
What impressed Kendall most about the Wairarapa bowling effort was they maintained a good line and length as well as an aggressive attitude.
"You couldn't fault their enthusiasm?they really ripped into their work," he said.
"It was encouraging stuff and they'll only get better too."
Kendall reiterated, however, that the value of having so many promising bowlers would count for little once the Hawke Cup games started unless their batsmen gave them something to bowl to.
"Obviously if we are struggling to put decent scores on the board it puts extra pressure on the bowlers to perform and that's something we want to avoid," he said.
"Right now the onus is on the batsmen to do their job - they have to get their attitude up to speed too before we get too carried away."
With that in mind Kendall is considering making some changes to the batting line-up for the "friendly" limited-overs match against a Hawke's Bay XI in Napier this coming Sunday.
That side won't be named until after training on Wednesday night but Lansdowne duo Ngatai Walker and Aaron Bidlake are two top order batsmen missing from the Levin match who will probably be given their chance to push claims for regular selection as the season progresses.