Volts batsman Natahn Smith feels the heat as wicket keeper Dane Cleaver, bat/pad Kieran Noema-Barnett as well as silly mid-on close in on an Ajaz Patel ball. Photo/Paul Taylor
Volts batsman Natahn Smith feels the heat as wicket keeper Dane Cleaver, bat/pad Kieran Noema-Barnett as well as silly mid-on close in on an Ajaz Patel ball. Photo/Paul Taylor
The Otago Volts' tail wagged furiously in the first innings and will, no doubt, do so in the second dig but Central Districts can and will simply have to find the mongrel to get the job done in Napier tomorrow.
The visitors were 124-1, trailing by 216 runs, at stumps today and will resume with co-skipper Hamish Rutherford 63 not out and first drop Josh Tasman Jones, unbeaten on six, when play resumes on the final day of the sixth-round Plunket Shield match at McLean Park tomorrow.
After setting a 584-8 in 145.1 overs on Saturday, the Greg Hay-captained CD today skittled Otago for 244 on a benign batting strip.
Coach Heinrich Malan said the Southerners had applied themselves quite well with the bat and CD also had had a couple of chances to make inroads.
"It's a big day tomorrow so we need to bowl nice lines and lengths, like today, and so, hopefully, we can do that," Malan said.
The tail wagged in No 7 Nathan Smith and No 10 Matt Bacon top scoring with 45 and 43 runs, respectively, but it was the new ball the Stags took shortly after lunch that broke the ninth-wicket stand between the pair as Bacon eclipsed his previous best of 23 runs.
If anything, that would have sent the message to the winless Volts' top-order batsmen to pull finger and they did. Openers Hamish Rutherford and Cam Hawkins scored 111 runs before the latter departed.
To put the wicket in perspective, Hay went to seven bowlers, including five internationals, who got there in 88.2 overs in Otago's first innings.
Logic, for what it's worth, suggests taking 20 wickets is do-able in a maximum 112 overs provided there isn't anything like the house-fire smoke that billowed across the ground behind the Lowe Corporation Stand on Saturday to break play and prompt a 1pm lunch.
First-change bowler Blair Tickner was outstanding in taking 4-25 from 15 overs, including six maidens, for an economy rate of 1.67 an over.
CD seamer Doug Bracewell goes through the motion as Otago off-strike batsman Nathan Smith applies pressure for a single run at McLean Park, Napier, today. Photo/ Paul Taylor
Doug Bracewell, at second change, took 3-41 from 14.2, including two maidens, while new-ball seamer Seth Rance took 2-33.
However, test spinner Ajaz Patel had bowled a mind-boggling 32 overs, including 11 maidens, to finish with 1-71 on an economy rate of 2.22 an over in CD's first bowling innings. He had added 13 more, four flawless, in the second dig.
Tickner was the only wicket taker, that of Hawkins for 52 runs.
"It's getting a little uneven bounce and Ajaz is getting some returns with bounces staying low," Malan said.
From a seamer's perspective, he said, they had got some variable bounce to end the first innings.
"Ajaz has, obviously, bowled a lot of overs today so that's expected from the calibre of bowler that he is so he's got a big load ahead of him tomorrow, too," he said of the left-arm spinner who was dropped from the Bangladesh tour series here in favour of Todd Astle, of Canterbury Kings.
Malan said it would be another chance for Patel to put his name out there if any more opportunites arose tomorrow.
