Day trip for Firebirds’ Aussie spinner
WELLINGTON have named a former Brisbane club player in their lineup for a four-game road trip to start their defence of their 50-over cricket title.
Batting offspinner Alecz Day has a dual passport and is following in the footsteps of Dane Hutchinson and Luke Ronchi who have made the trip across the Tasman to try their luck.
Day has caught the eye playing for Karori and further enhanced his claims with a couple of outings for Wellington A in Palmerston North last week.
With Jeetan Patel on the longterm injured list, Day has got the nod to be the side’s second spinner behind Luke Woodcock.
‘‘He’s been the pick of the bunch in terms of our next crop of spinners,’’ Wellington coach Jamie Siddons said.
Day played for the Sunshine Coast last season and featured regularly with bat and ball for his club without threatening to break into the Queensland representative side. For Karori he has taken 14 wickets at 16 and scored 245 runs at 27.22.
Pitch conditions at Eden Park No 2 will dictate whether he plays against Auckland today but at some point over the next 10 days he is expected to get an opportunity.
‘‘It’s a big jump from club cricket to this stuff so time will tell,’’ Siddons said.
Being defending champions hasn’t earned Wellington any favours in the draw. After today, they play Otago in Queenstown on Tuesday, Northern Districts in Mt Maunganui on Thursday and then Central Districts in Nelson on January 5.
It is 10 days on the road before a run of four home games.
‘‘It’s a little tough on the families but we’ve all done it before so we just get on with it,’’ Siddons said.
‘‘Ideally we’d pick up a few wins over this four-game trip, three would be nice. We don’t want to do what we did in the Twenty20, where we started slowly and had to make up a lot of ground after.
‘‘We play pretty good white ball cricket so hopefully that trend continues.’’
Besides Patel, Andy McKay (foot) is also on the injured list and international wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi is on enforced leave at the behest of New Zealand Cricket for the Auckland game. On a brighter note, the experienced pair of captain James Franklin and Grant Elliott return after missing two Plunket Shield matches that both resulted in losses.
Both are in the World Cup mix and have the road trip to keep their name in the frame.
In the other games today, Central Districts host Canterbury in New Plymouth and Otago are at home to Northern Districts in Alexandra.
Meanwhile, the Wellington Blaze women’s team are in Christchurch, playing a Twenty20 fixture against Northern today and then back-to-back 50-over matches against the same opponent.