Lynn McConnell
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29th Match: Canterbury v Northern Districts at Timaru, 25 Jan 2002 Lynn McConnell |
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Canterbury innings:
Pre-game: Northern Districts innings: |
With 30 overs gone, Canterbury, in the quest for 239 runs to win, were 115/4. Stead was 41 not out and Gareth Hopkins three not out.
Stead came to the wicket at the fall of Peter Fulton's wicket in the 10th over at which point Canterbury were 37/2.
He lost opener Shanan Stewart, who had been playing well for 31 off 62 balls albeit slowing down in the latter part of his innings, at 74.
Stewart fell victim to a good ball, the third bowled by Simon Doull in the his first over.
In Doull's second over, Stead played a lovely square drive for four and then cut another boundary off the next ball.
He almost lost partner Marcel McKenzie in the 25th over when left-arm slow bowler Matt Hart had him caught and bowled, only to find that he had bowled a no ball. However, Hart kept to the same method of attack and had McKenzie out in the next over in the same fashion, but legally this time for 12 runs and Canterbury were 106/4.
As the Aorangi Oval crowd provided their own entertainment with a bit of traditional Carisbrook type couch burning on the grass bank, Canterbury reached the 30-over mark with only Stead looking like troubling the ND bowling attack.
If they had any hope of hosting the semi-final of the State Shield to be played between the two teams they needed to score their runs in 40 overs. That placed a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of youthful Shanan Stewart to bat through much of the innings.
But after 15 overs they had crawled their way to 49/2 and the quest was now centred on winning alone. By comparison, Northern Districts were 74/1 at the same stage. Stewart was 24not out and Gary Stead was two not out.
Canterbury opened with Paul Wiseman and Shanan Stewart and while Wiseman unleashed a superb cover driven boundary off Joseph Yovich, it was a false dawn for the innings and he was bowled by Yovich in the next over, contributing as much to his own dismissal with his choice of shot, as Yovich did by getting the ball through him to bowl him for 11.
Peter Fulton joined Stewart but he had scored only six, by the 10th over, when he was leg before wicket to Yovich for six.
Yovich was a little costly, especially in his early overs, but he finished with two for 20.
Conditions, especially the light, improved in the second innings but by the 15 over mark it had closed in again.
A scoreboard glitch, the scoreboard was running separately from the official scorers, meant Marshall thought he had 100 when he hit the last ball of the innings for four.
Conditions were overcast and cool throughout the ND innings and there seemed little likelihood of any improvement during the day.
But after Michael Parlane's top of the order 64 ND were possibly disappointed not to score more.
However, that was tempered by Marshall's anchor role which at least ensured there was some momentum to the scoring even if the loss of batting partners meant ND were unable to punish Canterbury as much as they would like.
He was on 82 in the 48th over but going into the 50th, he was poised on 93 and facing international bowler Chris Martin whose previous five overs had cost 28 runs.
Matthew Hart was out to a superb catch by wicket-keeper Gareth Hopkins. Hart, on 11 attempted a sweep off Paul Wiseman's bowling. However, he miscued and the ball flew high off the bat on an arc behind Hopkins. It seemed it would be out of his reach, but he scrambled after the ball and had great reward for his efforts when diving to pull the catch in and have ND 149/3.
James Marshall scored his first half century of the one-day season, and the fourth of his career, the milestone coming up off 97 balls.
Canterbury's slow bowlers did a great job in pulling back the ND run rate through the middle stages of the innings. Wiseman had one for 40 from his 10 overs while Anderson had none for 35 from his 10.
Stephen Cunis was re-introduced for the 41st over and nine balls later he had his first wicket of the day when Hamish Marshall attempted a cover drive which was in the air long enough for Shanan Stewart to get to it and complete a comfortable catch. Marshall was out for 21 and ND were 185/4.
Grant Bradburn brought up the 200 when stepping away to leg and guiding the ball through to the cover boundary for one of the shots of the innings.
After 30 overs James Marshall was 42 not out and Matt Hart one with Northern Districts 126/2.
Parlane, batting at No 3, after Simon Doull departed for 10 runs when the score was 12, achieved the 15th half century of his one-day career when passing the mark of 61 balls, and after hitting five fours. He was finally out stumped by Gareth Hopkins off Ryan Burson's bowling for 64 scored off 75 balls. He hit seven fours.
Northern Districts were 121/2 at that stage.
The latter part of Parlane's innings slowed as he had to contend with tight bowling from medium-pacer Stephen Cunis and left-arm spinner Carl Anderson. Earlier, he had taken full toll of some wayward bowling by Ryan Burson and Chris Martin.
And the ball before he was dismissed he charged Burson and unleashed a superb square cut for four runs.
It was an overdue wicket for Burson who, in his fifth over, had conceded 34 runs.
Anderson's five overs yielded only 10 runs and helped Canterbury peg back the run rate.
Cunis' six overs cost 22 runs.
Darron Reekers was introduced for the 29th over and he took advantage of Matt Hart's arrival at the crease to place more pressure on the incoming batsman.
Mark Parlane had moved through to 43, a result of his making good use of his feet to get down the wicket to the slower bowlers, off-spinner Paul Wiseman and left-arm spinner Carl Anderson.
ND were given an accelerated start by Simon Doull, but he only contributed 10 runs before skying a ball which was taken by Darron Reekers to give Canterbury its first wicket in the third over.
Parlane soon took over and was rarely in any trouble, against both the medium-pacers or spinners.
He was punishing on anything wayward while James Marshall was accumulating sensibly at the other end and was 16 not out.
Not some impressive were the opening bowlers. Chris Martin had Doull's wicket but it came at a high price, 21 runs off four overs. Ryan Burson fared even worse, conceding 23 runs off only three overs.
Anderson's inclusion resulted in an immediate slowing of the scoring rate and he bowled two maidens in his first five overs.
Both Northern Districts and home team Canterbury will be keeping an ear on Auckland where Wellington, if they beat Auckland, will qualify automatically for the final.
If they lost however, Northern Districts, if they beat Canterbury, could host the final.
However, if Canterbury win today, and they pick up a bonus point they will host the semi-final next Wednesday.
The more realistic prospect however, is that Northern Districts will host the semi-final.
The teams will be selected from: Canterbury - Gary Stead (captain), Peter Fulton, Shanan Stewart, Darron Reekers, Carl Anderson, Gareth Hopkins, Paul Wiseman, Ryan Burson, Stephen Cunis, Chris Martin, Cleighton Cornelius, Aaron Redmond, Marcel McKenzie.
Northern Districts - Rob Hart (captain), Jaden Hatwell, Grant Bradburn, Ian Butler, Simon Doull, Matthew Hart, Hamish Marshall, James Marshall, Daryl Tuffey, Graeme Aldridge, Joseph Yovich, Michael Parlane.
The umpires are: Mike George, Glenn Holdem.
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 25 Jan2002 - 14:25