Stars look for luck

Red Star will be depending on the unpredictability of limited-overs cricket as a means of shedding their underdog tag in the semi-finals of the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Umpires Cup competition tomorrow.
Of the four teams bidding for a place in Sunday's grand final, Red Star is clearly fourth on the line of favouritism, especially as they have to get past the in-form Bracewell Academy side at the Park Sportsground to have a shot at the title.
The last time these two teams met in a one-day game the Academy cruised home, scoring a massive 268-9 and then dismissing Stars for 190.
And while both sides warmed up for tomorrow's game with wins last weekend, there was no question who was the more impressive, the Academy losing just two wickets in beating Wairarapa College and Red Star struggling to a three wicket win over Rathkeale despite having to score only 76 runs for the victory.
Against an Academy team which has the luxury of having a number of proven performers at the bowling crease, the onus will be on the top order Red Star batsmen to fire if a true contest is to occur.
Opener Daniel Stonely has been a consistent runmaker throughout the season, but he can't be expected to carry the whole load in that department.
Other players capable of scoring heavily like Adam Phelps and James Perry will have to do exactly that as well if Red Star are to make a nuisance of themselves.
For the Red Star bowlers it will be a case of how to stop free-scoring Academy batsmen like Gareth Jacobs, Graeme Williams, Will Stebbings and Jaco Ooosthuizen from taking control of proceedings.
They are all very adept at punishing anything loose and it will be up to medium pacers Nick Moorcock, Carwyn Caffell and Perry plus spinner Aaron Wilson to keep them in check by maintaining a steady line and length.
The other Umpires Cup semi-final sees defending champions Greytown facing a formidable Lansdowne challene at the Park Oval.
Greytown have too often shown themselves as a team for the big occasion to take too much notice of their defeat by Lansdowne in the last of the preliminary round matches last weekend when assessing their chances here.
Then they managed just 103 runs after Lansdowne had scored 142.
It's difficult to imagine Greytown batsmen of the calibre of Mark Childs, Josh Doherty, Jimmy Logue and Mark Jonas failing to produce a much better effort now that the serious business has arrived.
And you can wager too that if Shane Mellor, Hayden Spierling and Glen Jonas are all on deck there will be extra sting in their bowling performance as well.
Having said all that though Lansdowne will still fancy their prospects of eliminating the southerners.
In all-rounder Robin James they have a potential match winner with bat and ball and much the same can be said about Ngatai Walker, Chris Jefferies and Lee Ewington. Throw in the consistent batting of Henry Cameron and you have a side well suited to the demands of the one-day game.