Cricket: Tuffey and McIntosh back to Auckland

No superstitions around the Auckland team as they prepare for their third-round clash with Central Districts in the national one-day championship tomorrow.

The old line about not changing a winning team doesn't apply, as Auckland welcome back test pair Daryl Tuffey and Tim McIntosh in place of Greg Morgan and Keeley Todd from the side which beat Otago by 37 runs on Thursday.

And that was Auckland's first win in seven matches of whatever variety too, after five winless Plunket Shield rounds plus a first-round defeat to Northern Districts in the one-day campaign.

Tuffey, after an encouraging return to the test side against Pakistan, will add experience to the bowling attack, while McIntosh, who has been an in-and-out pick for the one-day side in recent seasons, will welcome more time in the middle and should strengthen the batting lineup.

"I thought it was a very positive performance," coach Paul Strang said of the win over Otago.

"We did a lot of little things very well and this time it came together for us. It was great to see us combine two really solid efforts with both bat and ball."

The next two rounds, tomorrow and Wednesday, are important to a competition in which all six teams have had a win and a loss so far.

It will be desirable to stay close to the bunch, rather than have to try and pick up ground once the one-day competition resumes in February after the much-touted Twenty20 competition, which occupies January.

CD are unchanged after being well beaten by Wellington on Thursday, their minds perhaps still on the stunning nine-wicket win over that team in the shield match earlier in the week.

However they have a solid core of hard-hitting allrounders, of whom occasional limited-overs international Brendon Diamanti, with a punishing 68 in 49 balls to breathe life into a sagging innings against Wellington on Thursday, is in good touch after recovering from a shoulder injury.

ND have lost captain James Marshall for their trip to Invercargill to play Otago.

Marshall has damaged webbing between two fingers.

Test bowler Tim Southee returns to further strengthen an area of the game in which ND have been strong this season and have plenty of depth tomorrow with Graeme Aldridge, Brent Arnel, Trent Boult, Southee and allrounder Joey Yovich in the 12.

Wellington host Canterbury in the third match in the capital.

NATIONAL ONE-DAY COMPETITION

Round 3, all start 11am today

* Central Districts v Auckland, Palmerston North

CD: (from) Jamie How (c), George Worker, Peter Ingram, Mathew Sinclair, Tim Weston, Jacob Oram, Graham Napier, Brendon Diamanti, Bevan Griggs, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Ewen Thompson, Michael Mason.
Auckland: (from) Gareth Hopkins (c), Richard Jones, Tim McIntosh, Ravi Bopara, Anaru Kitchen, Reece Young, Andrew de Boorder, Michael Bates, Ronnie Hira, Richard Sherlock, Daryl Tuffey, Bhupinder Singh.

* Otago v Northern Districts, Invercargill

Otago: (from) Craig Cumming (c), Hamish Rutherford, Shaun Haig, Neil Broom, Darren Broom, Derek de Boorder, Ian Butler, Yasir Arafat, Neil Wagner, Warren McSkimming, Mat Harvie, Anthony Bullick.
ND: (from) BJ Watling, Brad Wilson, Michael Parlane, Daniel Flynn, Kane Williamson, Anton Devcich, Peter McGlashan, Joey Yovich, Tim Southee, Bruce Martin, Graeme Aldridge, Trent Boult, Brent Arnel.

* Wellington v Canterbury, Wellington

Wellington: (possible) Matthew Bell (c), Cam Merchant, BJ Crook, James Franklin, Chris Nevin, Stewart Rhodes, Luke Woodcock, Dewayne Bowden, Jeetan Patel, Robbie Schaw, Andy McKay.
Canterbury: (from) Kruger van Wyk (c), Rob Nicol, Michael Papps, Peter Fulton, Johan Myburgh, Shanan Stewart, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Corey Anderson, Brandon Hiini, Karl Frauenstein, Leighton Burtt, Ryan Burson.