Celtic face testing start

Marlborough's senior batsmen will have a chance to get revenge on the province's bowlers when Twenty20 play gets under way tomorrow night at Horton Park.

The long days, red balls and white uniforms of two-day play will all be swept aside in favour of the hard-hitting game favoured by batsmen in the annual competition for the Marlborough Cricket Association Trophy.

This season the ball has dominated the bat more often than not in Grove Tavern Championship two-day play with few innings of substance.

While the shortest form of the game doesn't usually offer the time to craft large innings, runs usually flow quickly and boundaries are frequent.

Twenty20 play gets under way with defending champions Celtic facing Wairau on Horton Park's No1 pitch and Wairau Valley and Marlborough Academy meeting on the No2 ground.

In a rare sight for Twenty20, Biddy Kate's Marlborough senior representative players are expected to line up for their club teams tomorrow night.

Celtic face a stiff task if they are to make a winning start to their title defence.

Not only do they face in-form Wairau, who have trounced them twice in two-day play, dismissing them for less than 100 in all three innings, but they will do so without senior hands Joe Wheeler, Paul Murphy and Clay Wilson.

Karl Fitzpatrick is available after returning from university with the balance of the team expected to be made up of players from the club's two second grade teams.

The Wairau team will be missing Matthew Dodds.

After a horror run in the two-day competition, Valley will particularly enjoy the return to the short game, where they were runners-up last season.

The team will be without reliable medium pacer Nick Allen and will face an Academy team that usually excels in Twenty20.

Academy will also be boosted by the return of Black Cap Brendon Diamanti, who ruled himself out of playing for Central Districts in the four-day Plunket Shield match starting today in Christchurch.

Academy will have just one change to the team named for last week's rained out round of English rules, Ryan Maguire returning to replace Rohan Prasad.

Both matches start at 5.15pm.

Second and third grade cricket continues on Saturday with their 50 and 45 over competitions respectively.

- The Marlborough Express