Canterbury can afford to talk tough when it comes to Shell Cup finals, it has talked the talk and now walks the walk, and that is what Central Districts has to overcome in the best of three finals series which begins in Napier tomorrow.

Canterbury have the blue blood of cricket in their veins. They are the uncrowned kings of the one day game in New Zealand. Their dynasty dominates every aspect of the game in this country.

And while they might perform below expectations in the preliminary rounds, and that was certainly the case this year, they know when to lift their performance.

Wellington was on the receiving end the night Canterbury qualified for the finals and now it is Central Districts who must attempt to break Canterbury's sphere of influence.

Canterbury coach Garry MacDonald knows the score.

"If CD think they were under pressure in the semi-final, they are going to come under even greater pressure in the finals," he said.

"There's no room for the faint-hearted," he added.

MacDonald acknowledges the results CD has achieved since they were beaten at Timaru by Canterbury, a game CD would say was affected by the horrific ankle break suffered by Michael Mason when attempting to field a ball from Nathan Astle.

"Daniel Vettori looked to put a bit of pressure on their bowlers in the semi-final and they came back well. That shows a little bit of character.

"But we have to look at doing the things we do well. We have to keep doing everything right. We were in a must win situation for the last four rounds so we didn't concentrate so much on the opposition, just on ourselves," he said.

The final would be a lot tougher than the earlier match between the two. CD had grown in confidence and would play better as a result.

With its background of experience in the finals, MacDonald said the players knew it was a matter of keeping calm at all times.

"I believe by this stage of things there are a couple of key moments in an innings, and it usually comes down to fielding.

"It is usually a very minute part of the game that can turn it and in a tight game Canterbury has done that well," he said.

Coming down to the crunch against Wellington, Canterbury managed three fine run outs.

"We couldn't bowl them out so we fielded them out," he said.

The only change in the side is the injured Shane Bond being replaced by Stephen Cunis which MacDonald said wouldn't affect the balance of the side at all.

"Shane replaced Stephen against Wellington just for the balance we wanted for that game and we have every faith in him," he said.

The finals are new territory for CD and coach Dipak Patel.

But the good news for CD fans is that while there was natural elation in the camp after the side's semi-final win over Northern Districts, the players felt they had under-achieved in the game, especially several of the batsmen.

"Several of the batters felt they gave it away softly.

"When we've got the sort of batting line-up that we have we want all of them to fire," he said.

Patel said he fully expected Canterbury, like ND, to try and put the pressure on his young attack.

"We're well aware of what they will try to do. ND may have succeeded with their plans but our bowlers came back strongly.

"We'll be keeping a very simple plan. We'll look to carrying on the good work we've been doing over the last two weeks. That is to try and contain batsmen as long as possible and when we take wickets to keep applying the pressure," he said.

Patel said he and his fellow selectors were pleased with the way inexperienced captain Jacob Oram was handling the pressures of his new role. He had some good and experienced players around him and he had drawn on that experience very well.

There were some decisions he had made that were attributable to his newness to the role and while he got out in a disappointing way in the semi-final at a crucial stage of the game it had been the result of wanting to do something positive for the side, and Patel was happy with that.

Good support, and good weather, are expected in Napier and the challenge is ahead of CD.

As Patel said: "If you wanted to try and win the Shell Cup and to beat any team, it would have to be Canterbury, they have been so strong for so long."

© CricInfo