Cricket: Last season's finalists square off in one dayers

Auckland Aces celebrate their win in the final Twenty20 match against the Central Stags. Photo / Dean Purcell

Having ended last season's one-day competition duelling for the title, Auckland and Northern Districts will square off again when the first round of this year's edition is played tomorrow.

The northern rivals clashed in last summer's final at Colin Maiden Park, ND winning by 21 runs.

The teams meet on the same ground, with Auckland probably in better shape than their rivals.

Auckland won the HRV Cup final last weekend to put themselves in line for a trip to India later this year for the Champions League.

ND began their T20 programme with a rush, before falling away in the closing rounds.

Captain James Marshall, out of runs, was dropped but is reinstated for the start of the one-dayers.

ND are without test players Kane Williamson, national captain Dan Vettori, and seamers Brent Arnel and Tim Southee.

Last season's competition helped promote Williamson's case for higher honours. He topped the aggregates with an imposing 621 runs at 77.62 and picked up 13 cheap wickets with his offspin.

It will be interesting to see if another player can produce similarly impressive numbers to push an argument for moving up the pecking order in the national selectors' eyes.

Auckland's squad includes opener Jeet Raval, who was not required for the T20, and allrounder Colin Munro, who was a big asset for Auckland en route to winning that title.

Daryl Tuffey returns from the test squad, to fill out a solid looking lineup.

Coach Paul Strang emphasised the need to look forward, not rest on recent achievements.

"The HRV Cup win was fantastic but I think we've well and truly parked that now and the focus is on this competition and getting the start we need to be successful," he said.

"I think we proved in the [T20] that we have a very well balanced side and that gives us a solid base to work from in this competition. We've got strength in depth in the batting and a top class bowling unit."

In the other two games, Canterbury host Central Districts at Rangiora while Otago play Wellington in Alexandra. Otago's squad includes Michael Bracewell, nephew of former test players John and Brendon Bracewell. They've also confirmed one of their two T20 imports, Kent allrounder Darren Stevens, will be available for the one-dayers from round four.

Wellington's squad includes former test seamer Mark Gillespie, who has battled back, hip and thigh problems for the last couple of seasons.

There will be one-day debuts for opener Josh Brodie and allrounder Marc Calkin, if selected, while Wellington have international James Franklin back for the match.

The format is for eight rounds of games, three preliminary finals among the top four, before the February 13 final.

Cricket


National one-day competition

First round, all start 11am tomorrow

Auckland v Northern Districts Colin Maiden Park Auckland: (from) Gareth Hopkins (c), Jeet Raval, Lou Vincent, Anaru Kitchen, Colin de Grandhomme, Colin Munro, Dusan Hakaraia, Kyle Mills, Andre Adams, Daryl Tuffey, Ronnie Hira, Michael Bates. ND: (from) James Marshall (c), Daniel Flynn, Brad Wilson, BJ Watling, Michael Parlane, Scott Styris, Peter McGlashan, Joey Yovich, Bradley Scott, Graeme Aldridge, Trent Boult, Jason Donnelly.

Canterbury v Central Districts Rangiora Canterbury: (from) Peter Fulton (c), Michael Papps, Rob Nicol, Dean Brownlie, Shanan Stewart, Todd Astle, Andrew Ellis, Tom Latham, Carl Frauenstein, Hamish Bennett, Richard Sherlock. Ryan Burson. CD: (from) Jamie How (c), Peter Ingram, George Worker, Mathew Sinclair, Tim Weston, Jacob Oram, Kruger van Wyk, Doug Bracewell, Mitchell McClenaghan, Adam Milne, Tarun Nethula, Michael Mason.

Otago v Wellington Alexandra Otago: (from) Craig Cumming (c), Aaron Redmond, Neil Broom, Darren Broom, Michael Bracewell, Sam Wells, Derek de Boorder, Nathan McCullum, Nick Beard, Ian Butler, James McMillan, Warren McSkimming, Neil Wagner. Wellington: (from) Grant Elliott (c), Josh Brodie, Stewart Rhodes, James Franklin, Neal Parlane, Luke Woodcock, Joe Austin-Smellie, Harry Boam, Marc Calkin, DeWayne Bowden, Jeetan Patel, Mark Gillespie, Andrew Lamb.