Date-stamped : 31 Jan94 - 14:50
Central Districts v Canterbury, Shell Cup Final, Jan 29 1994.

Canterbury won the toss for the third Shell Cup  final  in  three
and  batted  first, but for a while must have rued that decision.
Central Districts' left arm opening bowler David Blake was  abso-
lutely  unplayable  in  his first two maiden overs, with Hartland
dropped once at slip and playing and missing on  virtually  every
other occasion.

At 31-1 Canterbury could count itself extremely lucky,  but  both
opening  bowlers  continued to bowl magnificently. Blake deserved
better than his 1-18? from his opening spell, while  his  partner
Alistair  Alcock,  who  must consider himself unlucky not to have
been selected for any invitation XI's to play Pakistan,  deserved
his 3 early wickets. Canterbury was in deep trouble at 34-4.

After 14 overs however the opening bowlers had to be spelled, and
Cairns  and Latham (batting at 6) took the score to 66. Then left
arm spinner Stu Duff opened his spell with a dreadful  full  toss
on  leg  stump, which Latham somehow managed to sky to Greatbatch
at square leg inside the circle.

This brought the talented young lefthander Stephen Fleming to the
crease,  and he provided a fine supporting hand as Cairns kept up
his wonderful form. It was a repeat of  New  Zealand's  win  over
South  Africa  in  Brisbane a few weeks ago, as Cairns hit out to
rescue his side and eventually play it into a position  of  great
strength.

Alcock and Blake still had three overs each left,  and  at  about
the  35 over mark skipper Roger Twose took the gamble and brought
them back. This move failed however, and both went for about 7 an
over  in  their  second spells. Cairns was eventually out for 99,
going for a second run which would have brought up  his  century.
His  sixth wicket partnership of 142 with Fleming was a Shell Cup
record.

Fleming finished with 58 as Canterbury scored the excellent total
of 240-7. Alcock took 3-39 from 10.

Central Districts were ahead of Canterbury's comparative run rate
for  most of the innings. Glenn McRae opened with a quick 23, and
Greatbatch was looking most dangerous until Cairns (who else) had
him for 44 to make the score 139-4.

Twose (38) and Blain (31) then put together a useful partnership,
but  Chris Harris got both of them, and stopped Dave Lamason from
repeating his semi final heroics thanks to a Lee Germon stumping.
Harris  took 3-32 from 10, and Cairns (4-44) swept away the tail,
completing a fine all round performance and wrapping up  the  man
of  the  match award. Central lost its last 6 wickets for 29 runs
and was all out for 215. Canterbury won its third title in a  row
by  25  runs, and will now try to translate their one day success
into better performances in the more important first class game.

<END> Contributed by Jason (jmas@waikato.ac.nz)