Out In The Middle With Scott
Back to Out In The Middle With ScottA Simple Equation
It’s a simple equation for the Yahoo!Xtra Northern Knights over the next three weeks in the HRV Cup - we need to win.
There are only three games left including today when we face off against Central Districts.
I think if we get two out of three we’ve probably done enough to get through but you never know with Twenty 20 cricket it’s just so unpredictable.
We’ve either won well or we’ve lost, so we’ve got to make winning a habit.
Our game against the Wizards highlights how good we can be when we get on a roll.
David Warner and Daniel Flynn started us off well and once a team gets moving like that it gets you up and fizzing as a unit.
David and Daniel’s great start allowed Herschelle Gibbs to come in and get some runs and I even got a chance to get out in the middle for a few balls at the end.
It’s critical in those first six overs that you get off to a good start and if we can get that right tonight we’ll be making good progress towards getting a spot in the final.
But it’s tight and other than the Otago Volts every team in the competition has a chance at making the final.
It’s been fantastic having some big name overseas players come into the series this year and it’s definitely added to the competition.
In the past there was probably a weaker bowler you could target or you could get through a few overs once a team were five or six down because the tail was there.
That’s not the case this year.
All the teams are quite strong and definitely capable of beating each other.
It’s been a good competition unfortunately the weather hasn’t played its part each week but I think if you get through to the final you know you’ve deserved it because you will have had to beat some good teams on the way.
Before our game against the Stags our run rate sits at 1.046 which is well ahead of all the other teams in the competition.
If we can knock over CD today it will mean that we will get a bit of a break on a couple of the other teams and that’s effectively two wins.
It’s important that even if we lose we lose closely and make sure that we put our foot down and get across the line because by the looks of things that run rate could very well come into play.
It would be nice to get a home final but we are six points behind Auckland but we do have a game in hand and we play them next.
That game could be a shootout for the top spot on the ladder.
I know how important it was last year having played for the Aces. We were leading going into the last round and then we lost and we had to play away in the final and that made our job tough.
I won’t be available for action for the Knights in the next two games against the Aces on the 27th and the Wizards on the 29th because I’ll be in camp with the BLACKCAPS as we take on Pakistan in the Twenty20 series.
But our squad is so strong and the boys are going so well I don’t think they’ll even notice I’m not there.
We get David Warner back from Australia for those last two games and yes it tests the bench a bit but our guys did well before we got back from India so
I have no doubt the boys can do the job and get us to the final.
The way it works for the BLACKCAPS, depending on where you are in the country, is you come into camp at around lunch time Christmas Day.
So you get the morning with your family and then we have training in the afternoon and then we’re into it on Boxing Day.
There won’t be any dramas about coming into camp on Christmas day, it’s a slight disruption to your family unit but it’s our job, that’s what we do and we’ve been doing it now for a few years on Boxing day.
Everyone knows that’s how it is and we get on with it.
And I’m looking forward to the opportunity to be on the same team as Jesse Ryder after the performance he put on against the Knights.
I thought Jesse was the difference between the two teams when we met.
I know how destructive Jesse can be having played with him for New Zealand on a number of occasions and I’m looking forward to him replicating that in the Pakistan series and then the World Cup after that.