Firebirds seek strong finish

The Wellington Firebirds hope to take on the role of party poopers this week in the Plunket Shield.

Canterbury are on the cusp of securing their second title of the summer, with the Plunket Shield four-day competition close to being added to their Ford Trophy win.

Of course, that one-day competition victory was against Wellington in February, and Bruce Edgar’s side would love to turn up to Hagley Oval in Christchurch today and ruin their celebration plans.

Both Auckland and Northern Districts are still in the hunt for the competition win, and Edgar said he’d love his team to make things interesting.

‘‘We’re not going there to make up the numbers,’’ Edgar said from a cold Christchurch.

‘‘Auckland and ND can both take the title, even if we’re out of it. So we’d quite like to make things interesting and see if one of them can slip in through the back door.’’

That will be just what Auckland and Northern Districts wanted to hear ahead of their final game of the season, knowing Wellington won’t roll over with nothing on the line for them.

Edgar described it as a finals game, particularly for Canterbury, and wants his team to improve their batting more than anything.

Michael Papps is on a glorious late-season run, with three consecutive centuries, but elsewhere runs have been trickling on to the scoreboard.

‘‘One of the things we’d expect, particularly late in the season, is more people standing up and scoring runs,’’ Edgar said.

‘‘We haven’t batted as well as we would have wanted. We’re not giving our bowlers enough to bowl at. Michael Papps is in great form, but we need guys to back that up.’’

Wellington won the Twenty20 title this season, coming from nowhere to reach the finals before defeating Central Districts in the final.

In the Ford Trophy, Wellington were pacesetters but fell at the final hurdle, beaten by a blistering Peter Fulton century in the final against Canterbury.

Their Plunket Shield campaign has been weather-affected throughout, with five draws and an abandonment from their nine games, some of which when they were in a dominant position.

Edgar wouldn’t blame the weather, however, for his side’s unfortunate Plunket Shield, given it helped out in the short form.

‘‘The weather probably helped us in the white-ball cricket, and went the other way in the Plunket Shield,’’ Edgar said.

‘‘That’s just the way it goes, sometimes. If we’d been offered this season at the start, we’d probably take that.’’