Cricket: CD buy insurance cover

CD Stag Tom Bruce racked up his highest List A score of 91 against the Aces yesterday at Eden Park outer oval.

Seldom do teams prepare for playoffs comfortable in the knowledge it's not a do-or-die situation.

The Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags deservedly earned that insurance policy yesterday when they beat the Auckland Aces by 47 runs in what batsman Tom Bruce described as a "shootout" in the final round of the Ford Trophy one-day competition.

Consequently team manager Lance Hamilton was frantically trying to book flights and make hotel accommodation for the players last night to play table-topping Canterbury Kings in Christchurch on Saturday.

To cut to the chase, CD skipper William Young and his men will defend the trophy but ... shhh ... just no one dare utter the "d" word because the Stags are out to win the silverware this summer.

"As soon as you start defending trophies you'll fall shy," said Bruce last night after smashing 91 runs off 62 balls, including 11 boundaries and four lusty sixes on Eden Park outer oval that typically offered pace and bounce with shorter boundaries.

The match yielded 649 runs with the visitors finding themselves padding up after the Auckland Aces won the toss but chose to bowl.

The victory means CD meet the Kings at Hagley Oval in the one v two qualifying final, after the hosts lost their unblemished record away to the ND Knights.

The winners of that game will head straight to the grand final, with hosting rights, but the losers will have a second life in playing the winners of the 3rd v 4th qualifying final (Otago Volts v Aces) in the elimination final on Wednesday next week.

Bruce echoed the sentiments of his skipper in lauding Ben Smith (90 from 90 balls) before Jesse Ryder ran him out in a calling mix up but the latter's 60 off 53 balls provided the platform for Bruce and Doug Bracewell (52/23) to go berserk.

Mindful of a worn-out cliche, Young put it down to a "team effort" on "what was a reasonably slow wicket".

Seth Rance and Ben Wheeler had the Aces reeling at 3-40 in 14 overs although all the other bowlers chimed in to stifle the hosts who scrambled to the launching pad around the 30th over with six down and an unreasonable asking rate.

"They needed something like 12 runs an over and that wasn't looking likely."

Bruce was delighted to find traction with the bat.

"I was coming off a couple of dark switches ... so it was a lot better today than to be coming off ducks," said the 24-year-old Taranaki batsman.