Wairarapa keen for win

Complacency won't be an issue when Wairarapa meets Marlborough in the first round of the Cave Cup limited-overs competition at Wanganui tomorrow.
Their 137-run first innings win over the southerners just a week earlier in a Hawke Cup qualifier might suggest that another easy win is in the offing but personnel changes might make Marlborough an entirely different proposition this time round.
Captain Greg Stretch did not play last weekend but is now back on deck and will strengthen the batting while a couple Central Districts players in Greg Hegglun and Brent Hefford will add considerable sting to their bowling.
Marlborough had also hoped to have Black Cap Matthew Sinclair in their side but he he has decided to recharge his batters by taking a short break from the game.
One Wairarapa bowler who should be relishing the prospect of pitting his skills the Marlborough batsmen is medium pacer Hayden Spierling, who thoroughly deserved the six wickets he took against them in the Hawke Cup game.
His haul was a reward for sustained accuracy and if he can come up with a repeat this weekend higher honours, such as Central Districts B, must be well within Spierling's grasp.
While it was Spierling who did the damage last Sunday his fellow medium pacers Richard Wylie and Shane Mellor also displayed the ability to maintain a consistent line and length and it was good to see spinner Ngatai Walker over his injury problems and back at the bowling crease too.
The decision to have Sam Curtis open the Wairarapa innings with Aaron Bidlake proved a wise one with a 100-run partnership setting their side on the way to a reasonably healthy first innings score of 249.
Bidlake again displayed his knack of intimidating the opposition bowlers by
taking the battle to them and his 67 contained a number of aggressive boundary shots.
Curtis was the ideal foil for Bidlake, concentrating on playing each ball on its merits and making a valuable 40.
It will be interesting to note the tactics applied by Marlborough when Bidlake confronts them tomorrow.
They will be well aware of just how dangerous a player like him can be in the limited-overs game and Hegglun, Hefford and company will be making the claiming of his wicket at a cheap cost one of their primary objectives.
The other teams contesting the Cave Cup are Wanganui and Horowhenua-Kapiti with the two winners scheduled to meet in Sunday's final.
UMPIRES CUP
Three teams share the lead in the Wairarapa Cricket Association's Umpires Cup limited-overs competition, matches in which will continue tomorrow.
Heading the table with 12 points are the Bracewell Academy XI, Red Star and Wairarapa College while Greytown and Lansdowne have 10. Trailing the field with four points is Rathkeale.
Tomorrow's draw sees Lansdowne playing the Academy XI at Park Sports No.2, Rathkeale up against Greytown at Rathkeale and Wairarapa College at home to Red Star.
Lansdowne have been struggling without their rep players and they could find the going tough against an academy side which has made a huge impact in recent weeks.
There is always the chance, of course, that with the Christmas-New Year holiday period looming the academy team could be somewhat depleted themselves but they will still start warm favourites.
Greytown got their Cup campaign back on track when they handed out a 31-run beating to Lansdowne in the only match not affected by the weather last weekend but they won't be taking anything for granted against a Rathkeale side which has probably performed better than their results would suggest.
As competition pacesetters the match between Red Star and Wairarapa College can be fairly labelled the game of the day and it could go either way, There is an even look to them in both the batting and bowling departments and just one outstanding individual performance could be enough to tip the scales.
Current competition points in the Bidwell Cup two-day series were also released this week with three teams (Greytown, Lansdowne and Academy) on 20 points and the other three yet to open their account.