Kelly excited to captain Otago at second ask
NICK Kelly is hoping to get his summer back on track after a twist.
The lefthand batsman had been set to make his toplevel captaincy debut on Wednesday.
However, a dose of food poisoning left him questionable before Otago’s match against Central Districts.
He ended up playing, but spent much of the match off the field and Mitch Renwick took the reins.
Now back fully fit, he is set to make his captaincy debut at the University Oval against Northern Districts in the Ford Trophy tomorrow.
‘‘It was a huge honour to be asked in the first place,’’ Kelly said.
‘‘Obviously, my first year down here, I didn’t really expect anything like this.
‘‘We’ve got a few guys away playing for New Zealand A, which is testament to how we’ve been going this year.
‘‘So to get the opportunity was awesome and I’m just really looking forward to it.’’
The 26yearold has been in top form, scoring well in the limitedovers matches this summer.
That included a century against Northern, his old team.
He was hoping to continue that form and forget his duck on Wednesday.
It had been a tough day in which the Volts were beaten by a side they had thrashed just
three days earlier.
‘‘We had a bowl first and, if we’re hard on ourselves, our bowlers probably weren’t quite clinical enough.
‘‘Then we just lost wickets early which didn’t really give us a chance to chase that big total.’’
Despite that, he is confident the side will be able to bounce back.
It had come off a twenty20 campaign in which things happened quickly and the side had to let go of bad performances, he said.
It would be a significant game too.
While the nerves of playing his old team were gone for Kelly, the race for Ford Trophy playoff spots was tight. The Volts are in third on 13 points, their big win over Central last weekend boosting them with a bonus point.
However, Northern and Wellington are both close behind on 12, making tomorrow’s game an important one.
‘‘They’re just behind us. So if we win it makes that gap just a little bit bigger.
‘‘We’ve tried to not think too far ahead in the competition in terms of who needs to win and how many games we’ve got to win.
‘‘But we’re all human so we’re all at home calculating anyway.
‘‘So obviously we’ll look to Sunday and hopefully we can get the win there.
‘‘But if we can’t it’s just one game at a time really.’’
The game begins at 11am.