A what-might-have-been season
It was a fine line between a great summer and a forgettable one for Central Districts this year.
CD were beaten finalists in the Twenty20 Super Smash competition this season, lost in the oneday elimination final and were fifth in the Plunket Shield.
They weren’t far off winning two of the three titles on offer, and taking either of the limited-overs crowns would have been a better reward for the season’s efforts, rather than being empty handed.
With the end-of-season reviews already done, CD coach Heinrich Malan is already thinking about next summer, where he wants to be again competing in a minimum of two out of the three competitions.
‘‘It was probably a what if season,’’ Malan said. ‘‘There were so many things.
‘‘We had the [Kaikoura] earthquake where we missed a whole round of cricket in the Plunket Shield, we had the weather bomb when we played in Hamilton in the pink-ball game and we missed a day in Auckland when there were holes in the covers.’’
As he’s said all season, they played good cricket in stages, but inconsistency plagued them, too.
They were unable to defend their one-day title and even though they reached the elimination final, they had to win three sudden-death games in a row to get there after a slow start to the competition, which Malan said was a hang over from the Super Smash.
In the Plunket Shield, CD only lost one game, but weren’t able to grind out results, having also had six draws, two wins, and the abandoned match because of the earthquake. There were two games where the batting fell over that annoyed Malan.
‘‘From a red ball perspective there’s so many things you can now look back at. Canterbury round two [71-run loss], then Wellington round eight [draw].
‘‘That’s 12 points each [if they won], so if you add 24 points, we’re pushing for second or third. If you told me before the season we’d finish second, second and third, from a consistency and overall competing in all three competitions, I’d definitely be more than happy with that.’’
As usual the bowling group copped a lot of injuries, but the silver lining was CD had to give younger players more experience.
George Worker, Ajaz Patel and Seth Rance were among the CD players to have standout seasons and for Worker and Rance in particular they must not be far away from national selection. Tom Bruce played four Twenty20s for New Zealand this year.
The players will have six weeks off before training resumes in June for the ones available, then everyone reconvenes in September.
Wicketkeeper Cleaver is having shoulder surgery, Doug Bracewell is recovering from knee surgery, Andrew Mathieson is getting an operation on his knee, Josh Clarkson on his back and Bevan Small had surgery on his shoulder at the start of the season.
Ryan Mccone picked up a stress fracture again, but it isn’t known if he will need surgery yet.
Rance, Worker, Will Young, Mitch Renwick and Greg Hay are all off to play club cricket in the United Kingdom in the off season, Adam Milne is playing in the Indian Premier League then heading to Kent in England and Ross Taylor is playing at Sussex.
Malan said they hadn’t entertained the thought of bringing a player in from outside the region for next season, but would look at someone if they were really bare in a particular area. Spin bowling and wicketkeeping are where CD want to build depth.
Nelson’s Marty Kain has retired and will move to the United States with his wife, so that leaves Ajaz Patel, the Plunket Shield’s leading wicket taker for the past two seasons, as the main spinner.
Jesse Ryder is relocating to Napier and will be back again next season, Malan said.