He bowls in four-over stints these days but veteran seamer James McMillan can still foot it with the younger ones.
Actually, the younger ones would be hard-pressed to keep up with the man they call Jimmy the Shoe.
The sprightly 35-year-old helped set up Otago's eight-wicket win against Auckland at Molyneux Park yesterday with a record frugal spell of bowling. He took two for eight from his allotment of four overs and picked up the key wicket of Jeet Raval.
''I don't know how he keeps doing it,'' Volts coach Vaughn Johnson said, shaking his head in disbelief.
''He was superb today. It must be a record to bowl his four overs for eight runs. That's superb and it is a tribute to him that he can keep trucking.''
Indeed, it is a record. Three players, including Otago's Bradley Scott, shared the most economical bowling in a domestic twenty20 match having conceded just nine runs. McMillan goes to the top of the pile.
His efforts helped restrict Auckland to a modest 119 for nine. The visitors were on track for a more challenging total but lost six wickets for just 28 runs.
''I thought the plans we executed in terms of the bowling were superb. To win by eight wickets was fantastic,'' Johnson said.
Otago was down on firepower, as test bowler Neil Wagner was sidelined with a rib injury and all-rounders Jimmy Neesham and Nathan McCullum joined Brendon McCullum in the Black Caps one-day squad.
However, the side was boosted by the return of Hamish Rutherford (49) and the test opener batted superbly. He combined with Neil Broom (51) to add 99 for the first wicket as Otago made light work of the chase.
A feature of its batting was the way it was able to rotate the strike and keep the scoreboard ticking between boundaries.
There were plenty of boundaries, of course. It helped that the rope and been brought in 10m or so.
Rutherford was the first to unleash. He pulled a short delivery over midwicket for six and dispatched a straight drive moments later.
Broom joined the fun in the fifth over with a brace of boundaries. Once he felt the ball on the middle of the bat he began to flourish. He pulled out a slog sweep to send a delivery from Bruce Martin over the rope and raced to 50 off 41 balls. He nicked out shortly after and Rutherford was run out one short of 50. Ryan ten Doeschate had the honour of hitting the winning run. He had to scamper, though.
Earlier, Raval played a lone hand, whacking 56 off 44 balls. His 50 came off just 35 deliveries and he appeared to be setting a good platform.
But he got a bumper from McMillan and swung hard, connecting only with the top edge of the bat. The ball ballooned to the keeper and captain Derek de Boorder. Raval's dismissal triggered a collapse.
The pitch was not at fault, either. Mostly it was just bad cricket and scoreboard pressure.
Molyneux Park had not hosted a domestic fixture in almost three years, because of concerns about the pitch, but Johnson felt the wicket had played well.
''I thought the wicket was very good. Maybe it needed a bit more baking with the weather they had here, but I thought it was a good one-day wicket.
''We bowled on it because ... we wanted to chase.''
In other HRV Cup games yesterday, the match between Wellington and Canterbury at the Basin Reserve was abandoned without a ball being bowled, because of wet conditions, APNZ reported.
In Nelson, an unbeaten 90 from Anton Devcich spurred Northern Districts to a 25-run win over Central Districts. Devcich, a fringe international with a handful of appearances for the Black Caps, slashed his runs from 68 balls as he batted through the innings for the visiting team, which made 174 for four from its 20 overs.
In reply, Central Districts was regularly behind the required run-rate and finished on 149 for seven. Kruger van Wyk top-scored with 42.
