They needed runs in a hurry but someone forgot to tell batsman Dean Robinson that.
Instead, the New Plymouth player made the grave mistake of ordering a curry in a hurry in Gisborne that curtailed his input in the Plunket Shield game.
"It was a very good chicken tikka masala, mate, but it's a lesson learned," the rookie batsman said after the Devon Hotel Central Districts Stags lost their four-day clash by an agonising 65 runs at the Harry Barker Reserve last night.
Robinson couldn't hold out at No 7, holing out for 21 off 94 balls in 99 minutes to Daniel Vettori to offer Northern Districts Knights fast bowler Trent Boult his five-wicket bag.
As predicted, No 4 Mathew Sinclair and No 6 Kruger van Wyk showed they are the cornerstone of any CD innings as they carved up patient centuries to give the Jamie How-skippered Stags a sniff of victory.
"I couldn't be at the ground for all of their innings but it was just awesome to watch the guys bat like that," Robinson said after Sinclair scored 121 off 252 balls (his 34th first-clas ton), including 16 boundaries, in 4hr 46min before Graeme Aldridge bowled him.
An over before, wicketkeeper van Wyk scored 13 fours in his 110 runs from 160 in 4hr 14 mins as the pair, in a fifth-wicket partnership, contributed 222 runs towards a demanding task of overhauling 407-run target.
"Obviously Skippy [Sinclair] and Kruger got us behind the eight ball but we couldn't hang in there," he said as Zimbabwe international Kyle Jarvis was left stranded on four runs to complete an outstanding CD debut with an eight-wicket haul and two unbeaten knocks.
Robinson was still not feeling the best yesterday after spending a lion's share of the weekend recuperating.
"Sharpie [trainer Ant Sharp] gave me a couple of pills so I was tucked up in bed most of the time.
"I felt a little bit weak. Anything I ate kept coming up this morning," the 22-year-old said.
The 341 runs in CD's second innings at stumps yesterday was the highest total of the four innings in the match, a testimony to how deep the Stags dug to fight to the bitter end.
Showers just after 5pm, that robbed CD of an hour's play and "juiced up the wicket", didn't help the cause with rules preventing play after 7pm.
The Alan Hunt-coached side contemplated going on the defence, believing adopting a bunker mentality for a stalemate was tantamount to a victory for the 2011-12 Ford Cup one-day champions.
"When I first went out to bat we were pushing for an outright win but it's hard to rebuild when you keep losing wickets.
"It's hard to say if we should have gone for outright but, in hindsight, maybe we could have batted a bit more positively," Robinson said, adding losing wickets in clumps prompted a rethink.
The victory ensures ND keep a stranglehold on the top rung of the ladder although the Stags come away with some batting and bowling points, too.
The CD players were expected to arrive in Napier today before departing for Queenstown tomorrow for the next round against the Otago Volts.
In other matches yesterday, the Auckland Aces eclipsed their target of 155 the hosts had set in Dunedin with four wickets to spare while at Rangiora the Wellington Firebirds chased down 280 to beat the Canterbury Wizards by five wickets.
No result was secure going into the final day yesterday but, after some ups and downs, the three winners broke clear on top of the Plunket Shield standings at the halfway mark of the competition.
The Knights lead on 64 points, with the Aces perched on the second rung with 50 and the Firebirds leap frogged CD to third on 45.
At the University Oval, Dunedin, the Aucklanders overcame a scary start to chase down 155.
Anaru Kitchen (46no), Colin Munro (39) and Bruce Martin (17no) saw the Aces home.
Wellington were the most dominant of the six sides going into the final day and kept a stranglehold on victory.