The Pink Report

Happy Days

When the Plunket Shield starts up again tomorrow, the order of the universe will at last be back to normal. The Yahoo!NZ Northern Knights will once again be playing in a competition in which they're on top, and us plebs will once again be able to listen to live audio commentary of first-class matches. Not only that, but top domestic cricket will be back in Gisborne, and powerful strokemaker Daniel Flynn will finally be back in whites for ND. That's a whole bunch of things to celebrate before a ball has even been bowled. Happy days are definitely here again!

The Harry Barker Reserve has an affectionate place in the memories of a bundle of the current Knights players because it's where they made their first-class debut. In fact Flynny, Brad Wilson, Anton Devcich and Te Ahu Davis all debuted together there in the same match back in 2005, a game that turned out to be a nice eight-wicket whalloping of Otago. They were all teenagers at the time - what a start that was for a fresh-faced side.

Pete McGlashan was new in the team, too - he'd already played for CD and Otago, and had his ND debut the previous round in Wellington, so that match was his first home game for the Knights. Alun Evans, who'd played first-class cricket for Glamorgan of course, was making his ND first-class debut as well. So, quite the occasion - oh, and with another young player named BJ Watling having just handed over the wicketkeeping gloves to Pete in order to move up to open the batting. It was the beginning of a new era for a core of guys who would go on to play a big hand in ND's future over the next seven years.

Flynny remembers it as "a nice way to kick off your career, a good little intro to first-class cricket" and reports from squad base that it's great to be back in Gisborne for the first time in several years.

"Gisborne's generally been a result wicket for us, in the seasons we've played here previously, anyway. There's a bit in it for the seamers and there's always a few runs scored. A good cricket wicket, with great weather, usually.

"This time the weather hasn't been too crash hot, but it's clearing up this arvo so we're training later on today and then into it tomorrow. We had a good training yesterday morning, too. It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few days, because this is the first time since I've been playing that we've had a game with a bit of rain drama leading up to it."

But happily the forecast for the match itself should see plenty of cricket played - which is just the ticket for a guy who's over sitting on the sidelines.

"It has been frustrating. When I first came back after my preseason hip operation (which shaved away some bone and tidied up the cartilage in his right hip, which had been giving him ongoing grief and caused him to miss games last season) it was more of just a gauge to see where I was at - and it turned out I was still restricted in my movement, both while batting and obviously in the field. It was good to find that out, because I was able to then go back to my rehab and make absolutely sure it got back to 100 per cent. You've got to strengthen up everything around the joint to help stabilise it, and I'd just had a couple of knocks on it which flared it up. But it settled down nicely and it's been good as gold since.

"After that it was a matter of spending some time in the middle. So I played a few games of club cricket, and a game for ND 'A' last week, and I felt everything was going pretty well, that it's come good. So now I'm just really looking forward to getting back into the swing of four-day cricket tomorrow."

The Knights have a healthy early lead over the rest of the Plunket Shield contenders - Auckland is the equivalent of one outright behind them, with tomorrow's opponents the Central Stags back a few points in third spot. But those pesky Stags have, of course, just come off a monumental championship win in the Ford Trophy - so they'll be quite full of themselves, confidence and spirits pumped up.

Which leads me to query what it's really like resuming a comp after almost two months of playing anything but long-form cricket. Does the way the Plunket Shield season's split in two - like brackets on the season - make it feel like two different comps, one in 2011 and one in 2012? Does it cancel out the psychological advantage the Knights were enjoying pre-Christmas as a team on a roll, back-to-back outrights, on top of the table - since T20 and one-day results have been overall custard in the interim?

"I guess it's up to all teams to adapt quickly and make the most of their opportunities", Flynny responds. "But yeah, it does feel a bit like two separate competitions. It would be nice to have a few more games dotted in between, but I understand the way they (NZC) have to structure it around the HRV Cup window in the holiday period and that makes it quite difficult for them to fit things in."

As for those Stags, Flynny enjoyed watching their Ford Trophy victory over the Aces. "It was a heck of a game. It was great to see someone like Mike Mason go out like that - thoroughly deserved, because he's been a real good servant to CD cricket.

"But we've just been focusing on what we have to do and, with the talent we’ve got in the side, if we put it all together then we should be difficult to beat. It comes back to us, rather than too much to do with the opposition. The short forms of the game obviously didn't go to plan, but we've got a chance to rectify that and to walk away with the Plunket Shield at the end of the season, which is the pinnacle in domestic cricket, in my view.

"We all know the key is not getting too far ahead of ourselves, just taking each game as it comes and looking to gradually improve as we progress through the rest of the comp. There's a lot of cricket left. We've got six games left, so hopefully I can make a bit of an impact and help us win the trophy. It's a great chance for guys to put their hand up."

And maybe even to set yet another individual batting record for ND, since some cheeky young thing has already knocked off the spectacular 241 that Flynny set at the end of last season (although Kane is a fairly decent batsman, it's said).

"It was only a matter of time before someone knocked it off and now it's another challenge for someone to be the first to 300," says Flynny. "There are a few guys queuing up to have a crack at it. It was great for Kane to do that the way he did, and really good to see him hitting the winning runs in the Blackcaps' T20 the other night. He hasn't really been given much opportunity in Twenty20 cricket either domestically or internationally and this season, now that he's got the opportunity, he's immediately shown what he's capable of."

The Knights are out to show what they're capable of, too. Don't forget you can get the new online live audio commentary from the blackcaps.co.nz website. There will even be video highlights from Gisborne (and the other two matches) available here - you'll just need to register online first, if you haven't already. The video highlights are fronted by an interactive scorecard where registered visitors can click a link to view a replay of every wicket, boundary and six.

Can't wait to check it out. Go to it, team. And fingers crossed for a generally sunny Gisborne over the next four days.