Time vital to Greytown

Greytown will be all out to pick up maximum points from Flight Centre Lansdowne on the second day of their Bidwell Cup senior men's inter-club match at Greytown tomorrow.
The home team's decision last weekend to declare their first innings closed after they had passed Lansdowne's 157 by just a handful of runs was based around the fact that anything less than an outright win will end their hopes of making it through to the cup final.
Right now Greytown are in a titanic struggle with Red Star to play the already qualified Lansdowne in the decider and, with Red Star having a game in hand against Lansdowne, starting next weekend, time is obviously of the essence to them. They have to take risks and their early declaration was the first cab off the rank in that respect.
The initial challenge for Greytown tomorrow is to take the nine remaining Lansdowne second innings wickets quickly enough for them to hit up however many runs are required for outright victory.
One suspects it will be spinners Steve Coleman and Nash Patel who will have the highest workload at the bowling crease, as not only do the slower bowlers tend to get through theirovers more rapidly but Greytown's pace attack will be blunted by the foot injury that had their star paceman, Seth Rance, bowling off a much-shortened run for Wairarapa against Manawatu last Sunday.
Rance is so passionate about his club side that he seems certain to play tomorrow, but will probably be able to bowl only in short spells, if at all.
Perhaps it will be his penchant for big hitting that will be his main value to Greytown this weekend.
If the southerners need runs in double-quick time, then Rance's ability to find the boundary on a regular basis could be vital.
Lansdowne, however, won't want to give Greytown anything without a decent fight as keeping a side of their calibre out of the final will clearly be their priority.
Even though they will be missing the injured Sam Curtis, Lansdowne have considerable depth in their batting and will be disappointed if they don't perform better in that department.
It is interesting, though, that most of their batsmen are free-goers who like to go for their shots and they will probably need to curb their enthusiasm to some degree, which is easier said than done.
How successful they are in that regard will have a huge part to play in the end result.
Red Star will greatly advance their finals aspirations if they can beat Wairarapa College outright in their match at the college and even a first innings lead would be a huge help.
When stumps were drawn last Saturday, Wairarapa College were 111-4 in their first innings chasing Red Star's 229 - and if they are to deprive Stars of first innings points, a lot will depend on the efforts of the two players who are at the wicket, Gordon Reisima and Tane Workman.
They are a couple of determined youngsters who have shown in the past they have the temperament to handle pressure situations ... and you can bet Red Star skipper Shay O'Gorman will be intent on putting them under plenty of that right from the word go.