There is a very good reason there has not been much first-class cricket played in Dunedin that early in the season — you might have noticed it rained yesterday. The weather last week was not that flash, either, so Davies has not had as much sun to work with as he would like.
And interestingly, Otago’s Plunket Shield fixture against Central Districts, which starts tomorrow, is the earliest a first-class match has been held in the city by two days.
You have to wind the clock back to 1896 for the last time a first-class game was staged during the first week of November. Otago hosted Canterbury in three-day match beginning on November 7.
The good news is Otago won by nine wickets. The bad news — or perhaps not that bad — is Canterbury was dismissed for 27 and 49.
But a peak under the covers suggests this pitch will play differently. Davies, who replaced former groundsman Tom Tamati in July, is confident he has produced the best pitch possible in the circumstances. And yesterday’s downpour did not dampen his spirits.
"I think we’ll be OK,’’ he said.
"The conditions you get thrown, you just have to deal with. We’ve done all right this week. We’ve worked hard ... and I think we’re good to go."
Core samples show "nice compaction" and "we are happy with where they are at".
The pitch was quite brown which suggests there might not be too much help for the seamers. But then predicting how the pitch will play is far from an exact science. Even Davies was not prepared to guess.
"I’m just as keen as anyone else to see how it will play, really."
Davies was based in Invercargill last season and prepared the Queen’s Park pitch for two one-day games and a first-class game. He also prepared the playing surface at Aorangi Oval for about five years before that. But most of his work experience has been on golf courses.
The forecast for the first two days of the match are not too bad but Monday and Tuesday are not looking promising.
"You never know, it can change pretty quick. I don’t look more than two or three days ahead. Fingers crossed they get lots of cricket."
