Manawatu¯ target Chapple Cup

Manawatu¯ won’t have an easy road if they want to claim the Chapple Cup.

The Central Districts one-day championship, the Chapple Cup, starts in Napier tomorrow, and Manawatu¯ were drawn to play Marlborough in the first round of the three-day tournament.

The top four teams from last year and the bottom four were put into separate pools and plucked out at random to determine fixtures. Marlborough are one of the tougher first-round fixtures Manawatu¯ could get.

The top four winners from tomorrow’s games will be put into a hat and drawn out to find who plays who in the semifinals. The final is on Sunday.

The Chapple Cup is later this year, which means Manawatu’s players have had a few rounds of club cricket and played in their Hawke Cup two-day match against Taranaki last weekend, rather than in previous years when the tournament was at the start of the season.

‘‘The pitches will be a bit flatter than they have been in the past,’’ Manawatu¯ player-coach Dave Meiring said. ‘‘I think it should be quite a high-scoring tournament.

‘‘Hopefully our top six or seven can do the job and the bowlers can do whatever they need to.’’

Manawatu¯ have lost the past two Chapple Cup finals to Hawke’s Bay, including their four-wicket loss last year.

There are three new players in the team from last week’s game against Taranaki, with allrounders, Arana Noema-barnett, Thomas Kuggeleijn and Floyd na Nagara, coming in to the squad of 13.

Spinning all-rounder Noemabarnett has been in form with the bat in club cricket and Freyberg’s Kuggeleijn impressed in Manawatu¯ ’s pre-season loss to Hawke’s Bay, taking five wickets with his seamers.

Na Nagara has been training with the squad and will be give them another seam-bowling option if required.

Pace bowler Bevan Small has been recalled by Central Districts. All CD players are with the first-class team and won’t be playing in Chapple Cup.

Meiring said they picked a good mix of batsmen and bowlers with the ability to beat any team