Cricket: NZ one-day spots up for grabs

By Terry Maddaford

Scott Styris might be some way from the top of the selectors' shortlist for a place in the New Zealand cricket team this summer, but a few more performances of the match-winning variety he turned in for Northern Districts against Canterbury will push his name further up that list.

Selection panel convener Ross Dykes said he and fellow selectors Steve Rixon and Rick Pickard would contemplate a team for the one-day internationals during the third test in Hamilton and name it at the end.

Dykes admitted that Matt Horne, inexplicably overlooked in the playing XI for New Zealand's most recent one-day internationals, in Bangladesh, would return to open the batting.

With usual one-day opener Nathan Astle sidelined with a broken hand, the search for Horne's partner is split between the players on test duty and those turning out in the Shell Cup.

Today's third-round Cup games in Napier, Wellington and Alexandra, and Sunday's fourth-round games, give a last chance to a handful of players.

"We have always said there would be changes for the one-day side," Dykes said.

"How many? Who knows? We will just have to see what happens."

Central Districts captain Craig Spearman, who leads his team into the day-night clash in Napier against Canterbury today, has shown nothing in batting at No 4 in two Cup outings.

Should he return to the top of the order and score runs, he would be back in the forefront of the selectors' thinking.

Lower in the order, Chris Harris, Alex Tait and Gavin Larsen will stake claims as allrounders, while Chris Drum, Shayne O'Connor and Andrew Penn hold some hope in pressing for inclusion as medium-pacers.

Styris, according to Dykes, has been under the watchful eye of the selectors for a year as a "multi-skilled player." His matchwinning effort at Blake Park further underlined those claims.

All teams go into today's round with a one-win, one-loss record. In battling back from first-game losses, Northern Districts, Auckland and Otago showed fighting qualities.

Northern meet the well-balanced Wellington side at the Basin Reserve, with the only change being the likely inclusion of Joseph Yovich, who sat out the first two games.

ND coach Chris Kuggeleijn hinted yesterday that there would be no change at the top of the batting despite poor starts in Taupo and Mt Maunganui. That suggests that if Yovich is to play he is likely to come in for a bowler, with newcomer Graeme Aldridge the most likely to be given a break.

Auckland meet Otago in Alexandra in a key game for two teams who also have players capable of pressing for places in the national side.