There’s a big welcome home sign out front as teams reach the pointy end of Georgie Pie Super Smash 2015.
Several BLACKCAPS are returning to action in the New Zealand’s premiere T20 competition as it hurtles towards its crescendo in just over a week’s time. The three-match Finals weekend begins at New Plymouth’s Yarrow Stadium on Friday night, with the 2015 Grand Final on Sunday 12 December.
Opening batsman Martin Guptill will be back for the Mondiale Auckland Aces in their away match at Seddon Park this Saturday night, against the SKYCITY Northern Knights who, like the Aces, are pushing hard to knock competition leaders the SBS Bank Otago Volts off the top perch of the points ladder.
Guptill's BLACKCAPS opening partner Tom Latham will turn out for the Canterbury Kings’ festival match against Sydney Thunder on Friday, while the Kings had the services of Matt Henry as they knocked out the Mighty Ape Wellington Firebirds from Finals contention yesterday at the Basin and jumped up to third spot on the points table.
Gamechanger wicketkeeper-bastman Luke Ronchi was back in action for the Firebirds yesterday to no avail, with the Firebirds also having brought in England allrounder Scott Borthwick on debut, with Craig Cachopa out and Jade Dernbach having suffered a back niggle.
Twenty-five-year-old lefthander Borthwick, who has a sprinkling of Test, ODI and T20 International caps, has been playing for Johnsonville in an ECB mentoring programme under Firebird Jeetan Patel.
The Volts will regain the services of Hamish Rutherford at 4pm today in Dunedin, where they take on the now fourth-placed Aces. The Volts hold a narrow, two-point margin over the Knights, Kings and Aces, who are separated only by net run rate with all sitting on 18 points.
