Cricket: Playing at home will be no help to us, says ND coach

Daniel Harris of the Melbourne Renegades. Photo / Getty Images

Having been gifted home advantage for tonight's preliminary playoff and, potentially tomorrow's domestic T20 final should play into Northern Districts' hands, right?

Not so, according to ND's coach James Pamment as he prepared his team to play Canterbury at Seddon Park with the winner to face defending HRV Cup champions Otago a day later.

When it comes to T20 cricket, Pamment doesn't think it counts for much.

"We won four games away from home and only two on our home ground," he said. "It's about on the day and about individuals performing that day. I don't think too many of our guys just rely on Seddon Park to perform their skills and I don't think it's much of a factor in T20."

ND would have gone straight into the final had they won one of their two games at Mt Maunganui at the start of this month, or toppled Canterbury in their final round robin game in Christchurch last Sunday.

In other words, their fate was in their own hands, having begun the competition strongly.

ND won't have their impressive Australian import batsman Daniel Harris, who is with the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash. However, they have seamer Chris Tremain back from the Sydney Thunder, after his one game against Central Districts in Nelson, but weren't planning on a late bid for another import to replace Harris.

"We'll be going with just Chris," chief executive Peter Roach said yesterday. "Certainly we've thought about all options, and that includes the West Indies. Our position has been that the Australian players have served us well.

"It's not just the skills they can bring but who they are and the way they play their cricket.

We probably didn't want to risk knowing less about a player coming into the biggest game."

Williamson being available for tonight before joining the New Zealand ODI squad in Napier is good news; not having Tim Southee or Corey Anderson, even for tonight's game, is not.

Canterbury have no imports, a policy they settled on before the season began. The Wizards won four of their last five games.Their batsmen are in form. The top four of George Worker, Rob Nicol, Dean Brownlie and Peter Fulton have all made good, fast runs in the last two matches.

HRV Cup schedule

• Tonight: Northern Districts v Canterbury, 7.15
• Tomorrow: Otago v winner of ND v Canterbury, 7.15pm