Toss vital to winning Cup clash

The toss could be all important when Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay do battle in a Hawke Cup senior men's qualifying cricket match at Queen Elizabeth Park oval in Masterton over the weekend.
It will be the first time this season the oval wicket has been used and it will be interesting to see the effect of renovation work done on the block in recent times.
Will it provide more bounce for the quicker bowlers or will it be a batsman's paradise?
Those question will, of course, be in the minds of the two captains when the toss is made and the uncertainty surrounding the wicket would suggest that whoever calls correctly could be tempted to field first.
Hawke's Bay will go into the match as favourites after their 74-run win over Wairarapa in a Chapple Cup limited-overs game played at Rathkeale last weekend.
But despite the apparent ease of that victory Wairarapa selector Ngatai Walker believes there were enough positives out of the game for Wairarapa to give them a good chance of reversing the end result in the two-day match.
For instance while Hawke's Bay scored 227 runs only three of their batsmen mastered the Wairarapa attack well enough to make it into double figures.
Opener James De Terte dominated the scoring with a knock of 104 but was dropped three times, the first before he had opened his account. As Walker points out had that chance been taken the whole complexion of the game could have changed.
De Terte was not, however the only Hawke's Bay batsman to gain from what was
some rather shoddy Wairarapa fielding and Walker is optimistic of a much better effort will be forthcoming in that area this weekend.
"You have to take your catches to be competitive at this level and the players know they let themselves down in that respect," he said. "I'm_pretty confident that won't happen again."
With the experienced Robin James sidelined through injury the Wairarapa attack has been weakened to some degree but the likes of medium pacers Shane Mellor, Hayden Spierling,Seth Rance, Graeme Williams Richard Wylie and spinner Aaron Wilson are all capable of bowling lengthy spells if so required.
Rance comes into the side as James's replacement after taking three wickets for the Wairarapa B team in their limited-overs game with Hawke's Bay B last weekend and on the back of some useful club form as well. This is his chance to cement a regular berth in the A line-up and he will be keen to make every post a winner.
The Wairarapa batting effort last weekend was somewhat less telling than it should have been when you consider that all 11 players can be handy contributors in that sphere of the game.
Only Aaron Bidlake (33) and John Peters (24) did anything like justice to themselves and here too Ngatai Walker believes a big improvement is on the cards this weekend.
"They (Hawke's Bay) do have a good attack but our batsmen are certainly capable of scoring well against them, " he said. "It's just a matter of batting sensibly rather than trying to hurry things along."
Changes are expected to be made to the Wairarapa batting order from that which fronted up last weekend. Regular opener Sam Curtis is likely to be dropped to number four to give added stability to the middle order with recently-appointed Central Districts under-19 captain Henry Cameron partnering Aaron Bidlake in the opening position.
Whether the rapid-scoring Bidlake is the ideal opener for a two-day game is open to debate but one thing is for sure, if the Bay quickies don't get it right early on they'll be in for some hefty punishment.
Peters is likely to retain his place at first drop and with Curtis at four and Chris Jefferies at five there will certainly be no lack of experience in the middle order Just how they perform is likely to play a very important part in the outcome of the match.
UMPIRES CUP
The clash with the Hawke Cup match will some senior club sides rather depleted for their Umpires Cup limited-overs games tomorrow.
The in-form Bracewell Academy XI will, however, be missing only Graeme Williams because of the rules which allow for only one "import" to be played in Hawke Cup games and therefore they should be too strong for Rathkeale at Rathkeale.
Greytown invariably has the "wood" on Red Star and nothing seems likely to change in their clash at Park Sports No.2 but while Lansdowne will start warm favourites against Wairarapa College at Wairarapa College the students are by no means out of this one. They have a consistent attack and an under-strenth Lansdowne batting line-up will be put to the test.