The Volts play Central Districts in a televised twenty20 match in Napier tonight and they go into the game with renewed confidence, having prevailed in a tense struggle with Northern Districts on Wednesday night.
The Volts laboured through the first half of the Plunket Shield and got their T20 campaign off to a poor start with a 22-run loss to Auckland this month.
But the team registered its first win under Walter with a dramatic two-run win against Northern.
The final over had everything. A couple of boundaries, a towering six, two run-outs and the crowd was also treated to the sight of the stumps being skittled when Jimmy Neesham found his range with the penultimate ball.
The victory came at the start of a testing part of the season in which the Volts will play five games in 10 days.
"When we lost the first [T20], we were pretty average in most departments. But in this game we played well for maybe 85% of the time," Walter said.
"I thought the batting effort was outstanding.
"But I thought of the 15 overs we bowled, we bowled 10 or 11 good ones. To get a win under the belt will hopefully push us to be another 5% better in the next game."
Veteran left-armer Bradley Scott has rejoined the squad and will bolster a bowling line-up which has been under pressure. He was ruled out of Wednesday’s match with a knee complaint and it might be too soon for him to play tonight. But he should be ready for the Volts’ rematch with Northern Districts on Sunday in Mount Maunganui.
Scott replaces legspinner Rhys Phillips in the 13-strong squad.
While Walter was delighted his side had been able to hold on and clinch the win against Northern, it was certainly far from perfect.
The Volts’ top order turned in a wonderful display with the bat, but the bowlers nearly let the side down with another below par performance.
Warren Barnes started poorly with a nine-ball over which cost his side 20 runs. Jacob Duffy’s first over proved horrendously expensive. He conceded 23 runs.
Northern scored 49 runs in the first three overs and was humming along.
"It ended up being a bit closer than it should have been. But after the start we had, it was good to claw our way back in and we bowled really well for a six-over period during the middle and that set us up well for the end.
"It was just good to see guys like [Jimmy] Neesham stepping up and dominating the game. That was a really good sign."
The Black Caps all-rounder bowled the dramatic last over and was influential with the bat, blasting an undefeated 42 from 16 deliveries.
He looked in good touch with the Black Caps while filling in for Ross Taylor at No4 and is just hitting the ball so crisply at the moment. And arguably he was the best of Otago’s seamers.
Central has named a powerful top four featuring former internationals Jesse Ryder and Mahela Jayawardene. Ryder is potentially the most destructive player in the competition, while Jayawardene has almost 12,000 test runs behind him and can play a little. The pair will be a stern challenge for an Otago attack which has been misfiring.
Domestic twenty20
Napier, tonight, 7.10pm, Sky Sport 1
Otago: Hamish Rutherford (captain), Anaru Kitchen, Neil Broom, Brad Wilson, Michael Bracewell, Jimmy Neesham, Josh Finnie, Derek de Boorder, Neil Wagner, Jacob Duffy, Warren Barnes, Bradley Scott, Christi Viljoen.
Central Districts: George Worker, Jesse Ryder, Mahela Jayawardene, Will Young (captain), Tom Bruce, Dane Cleaver, Ben Wheeler, Ryan McCone, Blair Tickner, Joshua Clarkson, Marty Kain, Seth Rance.
