New Zealand Cricket yesterday released changes to the first-class schedule as a result of the Christchurch earthquake.
Games scheduled to be played on March 3-6 and March 10-13 will now be played on March 7-10 and March 14-17.
Otago Cricket Association chief executive Ross Dykes said the decision was made in consultation between NZC and the six major associations.
"Canterbury have said they want to rejoin the Plunket Shield as soon as possible and can have a side ready to go by Monday," he said.
"To accommodate that we are deferring the start of the next two rounds from Thursday to Monday.
"What it does is it retains the integrity of the competition and does not disadvantage Canterbury by not being able to play games."
Last week's match between Canterbury and Wellington was abandoned due to the earthquake and cricket administrators are working through the most appropriate distribution of points from that match.
While no-one is complaining about the changes, it has left Tamati scrambling to prepare a second pitch.
He had finished preparing the pitch for today's planned fixture between Otago and Auckland but, by Monday, that pitch would have deteriorated through drying and weathering to the point where it was unusable.
"We had a game booked in for next week anyway, and I was about three quarters through finishing that wicket," he said.
"So what I'm going to try and do is finish it off in the next three days so we can use it.
"And I'll have to make another one for the 14th."
It is far from ideal.
The University Oval has been out of commission while development work was carried out expanding and improving the venue.
A new pitch block has been laid and there was enough nervousness about how the wicket might play with adequate preparation.
"It throws a bit of a spanner in the works, but you can understand given the circumstances.
"But I'm pretty confident I'll get this other pitch up in time.
"It is actually looking really good. It has plenty of grass and it is starting to get hard."
Tamati will keep the pitch he has prepared as a back-up if he cannot get the new wicket up in time.
Otago cricket has also been left in a bit of a quandary.
A relaunch planned for 5pm today will still go ahead, but there will not be any cricket in the background.
Dykes said the association had considered rescheduling the ceremony, but there had been such a good response he was reluctant to shift the event at such late notice.
