Cricket: Loss not issue as Stags hold top spot

Kruger van Wyk says CD deserve top spot.

They stumbled at the last hurdle, the top-order batsmen didn't fire and the bowlers didn't look like they had a decent workout.

But all that hardly matters because the Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags finished on the top rung of the Ford Trophy 50-over competition yesterday in Wellington.

In doing so, the Heinrich Malan-coached Stags have issued a summons to the Auckland Aces to appear in New Plymouth for the preliminary final on Saturday.

You see, the Kruger van Wyk-captained CD were blissfully aware that Auckland had registered a two-wicket loss to the Northern Districts Knights in a low-scoring affair at Mt Maunganui.

"It's not a major train crash for us because we're home and in the playoffs," Van Wyk said yesterday after his men went down by 22 runs to this summer's whipping boys in the limited-overs campaign, Wellington, at the Basin Reserve.

How quickly fortunes can change because the Firebirds won the Georgie Pie Super Smash Twenty20 crown only to lose their mojo in the longer white-ball assignment.

Conversely, CD recorded another mediocre T20 summer but have become the late bloomers in the Ford Trophy.

"I'm not surprised by it at all," Van Wyk said when asked if someone had offered them a playoff position rather then finishing top of the table CD would have gleefully taken it.

"It's been a long time coming. We've got what we deserved so we're putting all that [T20] behind us to play Auckland in Pukekura Park now."

The Stags have a monopoly on home advantage between the No1 and No2 qualifiers - the winners will progress directly to the grand final on February 1.

The losers of the top qualifiers will have another life against the victors of the sudden-death encounter between the Otago Volts and ND this Saturday.

For Van Wyk the Stags gleaned something from every game in the 50-over competition.

They beat every team, bar ND in the first clash and the Firebirds yesterday - which was effectively a dead rubber with no bearing on CD's final position on the table once they learned of Auckland's demise.

"We're on the top spot and the top of the lot," the veteran wicketkeeper declared, after coming to the rescue two games in a row with 60 runs as the top order faltered.

"It's a case of the boys missing out today but I'm not concerned because they are quality players."

Andrew Mathieson was again CD's pick of the bowlers, claiming 3-51 from his 10 overs to finish as the competition's top wicket-taker with 23 scalps.

Teammate George Worker topped the run-scoring charts with 500 despite yesterday's third-ball duck.

The Canterbury Kings and Otago game in Rangiora was washed out after a few overs.