Losing team faces tough questioning

Accountability will be a key word when Wairarapa take on Horowhenua-Kapiti in a Hawke Cup qualifying cricket match at Levin on Saturday and Sunday.
Selector Dick Kendall won't confirm his squad until after a training session tomorrow night, and while few changes are expected from the side which suffered a first innings loss at the hands of Nelson last weekend, he makes no secret that time is running short for some of his players to come up trumps.
This is especially so in the batting department where a number of the so-called specialists have struggled to make the required impact, not only against Nelson, but against Wanganui in the previous game when a come-from-behind outright win was achieved. That despite an abysmal first innings batting effort which produced only 97 runs.
With Wairarapa dropping from first on the zone two points table to fifth after their effort against Nelson, Kendall is all too well aware that if his side are to earn a Hawke Cup challenge they will need to beat Horowhenua-Kapiti, and beat them comfortably.
And so he is making no excuses for putting the pressure on his batsmen to score enough runs to give what is a very useful Wairarapa attack every opportunity to force an outright win.
"The batsmen have to be accountable, to the team and to themselves," he said. "They are all capable of scoring heavily at this level but being capable and actually doing it are very different things.There is no room for excuses, it's up to them to do the business."
Making Wairarapa's batting woes even more frustrating for Kendall is the fact that neither Wanganui or Nelson had what you would call a lethal bowling line-up. Nelson, especially, was very limited in that regard, but their batsmen did what Kendall is asking his to do, scoring a mammoth 455-7 at their first turn at bat and therefore giving their bowlers ample chance to seal first innings honours.
On paper Wairarapa's first innings reply of 305 might look sound enough but when you consider that wicketkeeper Andy Roberts (68) and Shane Mellor (27) provided 101 of them in their gutsy last wicket partnership, it was little to write home about.
Kendall is hoping, however, that the example set in that game by Roberts and Mellor will stand his team in good stead this coming weekend.
"They showed what sensible batting can do," he said. "They didn't take undue risks yet when the ball was there to be hit they generally despatched it to the boundary."
For Roberts, his knock, which included seven fours and three sixes, will probably be enough to see him stave off the challenge of Will Rist for the 'keeping role in the Levin match.
There won't be a lot in it though as Rist is also a competent batsman and might, in fact, have a slight edge in agility behind the stumps.
Mellor came into the Wairarapa side for the Nelson game as a replacement for highly talented Rathkeale all-rounder Doug Bracewell, who along with two other members of the side which had beaten Wanganui in Andy Dodd and Simon Clinton-Baker, were involved in the Gillette Cup national secondary schools finals in Palmerston North.Indications then were that it could be a one-off appearance for Mellor who had previously made himself unavailable for rep selection this season, but the prospects are that he will again be on deck in Levin as the chances of Bracewell being included in that side seem remote.
This is because he, Clinton-Baker and Dodd are part of the Wairarapa team playing in the Central Districts under-17s tourney in Wanganui this week, and Kendall believes they are probably in need of a short break from competitive cricket.
Whether that rules out all of them is yet to be revealed, but the odds are that Bracewell and spinner Clinton-Baker will be spelled and that Dodd, who does not have quite the same workload as them on the bowling front, will play, probably as a middle order batsman also capable of providing a few overs of spin.
A change at the top of the Wairarapa batting order from that which played Nelson is guaranteed.
This is necessitated by the withdrawl of opener Aaron Bidlake from the rep squad, and it seems certain that Bidlake's Lansdowne team-mate Sam Curtis will join top scorer last weekend Cameron Stone in the opening positions.
Curtis looked in good touch when making 33 from down the order against Nelson, but is a regular opener at both club and rep level and it would make good sense to promote him to that role again.
Other "specialist" batsmen seemingly sure of places in the Wairarapa side for the Levin game are Eddie Hopkins, John Peters, Ngatai Walker and Henry Cameron and their form will come under the microscope as they are yet to show the consistency demanded by Kendall of players in their position and of their calibre. It is fair to suggest that big scores from at least two of them will be vital if Wairarapa are to come out of the game with maximum points.
Veteran Chis Jefferies had a big game with bat and ball for Wairarapa in their win over Wanganui but was not so effective against Nelson and he too will be keen to return to his best form.
The make-up of the Wairarapa attack will also be interesting. Paceman Hayden Spierling has done enough in the two games so far to be in the "certainty category", but Wairarapa College new ball bowler Seth Rance has had some problems with his line and has serious competition for his place in the form of Richard Wylie and Ben Hodder. The extra pace of Rance might just see him given another chance to cement a regular berth in the side.
Wairarapa play in zone two of the Hawke Cup series and after last weekend's action are sitting on nine points.
Ahead of them are Hawke's Bay 17, Nelson 14 and Taranaki and Wanganui, both on 10. Behind them are Marlborough and Horowhenua-Kapiti on 4 and Manawatu on 1.