16th Match: Central Districts v Auckland at New Plymouth, 16 Jan 2002 CricInfo Live Report

16th Match: Central Districts v Auckland at New Plymouth, 16 Jan 2002
Steve McMorran

Central Districts innings: Drink, First Innings, Drinks, first innings, Change of innings,
Auckland innings: Drinks, Second Innings, Drinks, second innings, End Of Game,
Pre-game: Pre-game ,

AUCKLAND STRUGGLE TO MAKE TOTAL DESPITE HORNE'S EFFORTS

Matt Horne, with one of the most brilliant quickfire innings of the season, played Auckland into a position to crush Central Districts, bonus point and all, in their State Shield match at Pukekura Park today, then watched as they casually undermined his achievement before stealing home by four wickets.

Despite a patient century by Llorne Howell, who had been a partner in a 108-run opening partnership with Horne and who was still at the crease when the innings ended, Auckland made laborious progress to their victory from the third ball of the 49th over. Howell raised his hundred with a boundary from the second ball and completed the win with a second boundary one ball later.

Horne, in full flight, had launched Auckland into a spectacular reply to Central's total of 258-9, achieved in 50 overs after they had batted first on losing the toss. He rushed to 50 from 37 balls and to his eventual score of 68 from 49 balls to give Auckland a platform from which they should have stepped off comfortably to a victory and to a bonus point.

With Howell, both contributor and spectator, he put 100 runs on the board in one ball more than 10 overs at a flicker less than 10 runs per over. So great was influence that, as Auckland raced to 43 in only five overs, he had scored 40 and Howell had scored only one and faced two balls.

Horne hit 15 boundaries leaving few corners of the ground untouched and he must have gaped as boundaries, through the remainder of Auckland's innings, became as scarce as fine days in this depressing summer.

After Horne and Howell had raised 100 in 10.1 overs, Auckland - possessed by an overwhelming lethargy - needed a further 27.1 overs to double their score. They had been scoring at more than eight runs per over when Horne was out after 13 overs but, through a series of moderate partnerships, that run rate dwindled and the run rate required began to climb.

Auckland seemed completely unable to maintain the momentum Horne had given them, as if overawed by his achievement. In 10 overs after his dismissal they added only 38 runs, in 20 overs 70 runs.

They seemed trapped by the conviction the runs would come if they simply perservered. They wasted opportunities to take easy singles or to turn singles into twos and their scoring rate slowed to a trickle.

They were impeded, to a degree, by some superb bowling mid-innings by Central captain, right-arm spinner Glen Sulzberger whose first five overs cost only 10 runs and who took 2-28 off 10 as his Auckland counterpart Mark Haslam had done during Central's innings.

But Auckland simply became complacent. They needed Howell to take advantage of his long period at the crease but he struggled to maintain the tempo of the innings.

His century, when it came, had taken 133 balls. He had given the innings its backbone and that it was a great achievement but with an innings such as his and another such as Horne's, Auckland should have won muc h more comfortably. To have given up a bonus point, let alone to have come within nine balls of the completion of the 50 overs was inexcusable.

Auckland needed to surpass Central's scoring within 40 overs to take the bonus point yet at that point they were 210-5, still almost 50 runs short of victory and that after being 138-1 after 20 overs.

The greatest example of the inertia which gripped them in the middle of the innings was seen in Aaron Barnes run out when he was 27 and Auckland were 164 in the 29th over. BArnes simply strolled out of his crease after steering the ball, inadvertently, to Matthew Sinclair at deep gully, then stood a few paces out of his ground and watched as Sinclair effected the run out.

It was if Auckland had become cast, convinced on the one hand that the runs had to come after such a beginning and yet unsure on the other how to continue a run chase.

They had been left 259 to win after Central, relying on Ben Smith's 83 from 103 balls, made their 258-9 from 50 overs.

Their were, as well, contributions of 43 from Sulzberger, 24 not out from Campbell Furlong and 31 from Richard King. Smith battled superbly, showing his mastery of the one-day game. While he hit four four ans three sixes in a well-paced innings, the mark of his intelligence was that 34 runs came from singles.

AUCKAND SLOW AFTER HORNE ONSLAUGHT

Auckland had begun, gradually, to lose the plot in their State Shield match against Central Districts at Pukekura Park today when the second drinks break was taken in their reply to Central's 258-9.

Auckland were 187-2 at drinks but their run-rate had waned dreadfully since the disolution of the opening partnership between Matt Horne and Llorne Howell which gave them 100 runs in one ball more than 10 overs.

Horne was out for 68 when Auckland was 108 in only the 13th over and, at that point, Auckland were cantering towards victory and towards a bonus point, needing only 151 runs for the former in 37 overs with nine wickets left.

For the bonus point they needed also to surpass Central's total within 40 overs and that seemed hugely likely with the start their openers had provided. Horne had taken his 68 runs from only 49 balls with 15 boundaries, his half century from 37 deliveries.

But when Horne left and though Howell attempted to maintain a steady run rate, Auckland steadily slipped off the pace. They seemed overtaken by a sudden and unexplained lethargy, thinking perhaps that victory if not the additional bonus point were only a formality.

Their runrate dwindled to seven, then to six, then to five and finally below that rate - which is no more than average for a one-day match at Pukekura Park - and at times Auckland were almost stationery.

Central's spinners Glen Sulzberger and Craig Furlong were partly responsible for applying the brakes to Auckland's innings. Sulzberger, the Central captain, bowled five overs for 10 runs at a time when Auckland might have been thrashing his bowlers and when there should have been no such impediment to the scoring.

Furlong bowled his overs in three spells from the gardens end and discharged them relatively cheaply.

But the greatest limitation on Auckland's scoring was their own apathy - the steady onset of a kind of batting stupor which gripped Howell and to a greater extent Aaron Barnes.

They stopped milking the attack for singles, as they had been previously, and boundaries dried up almost entirely. After 10 overs auckland had been 97. In the next 10 overs they added only 41 runs, in 10 overs after that 31.

The batting which had been breathtaking became lack-lustre, the momentum dwindling entirely.

Howell moved past his half century from 60 balls and was 71 when drinks were taken. Nick Horsley, who had helped the run rate with two fours in the over before drinks, was 13.

But the greatest evidence of Auckland's torpor was Aaron Barnes dismissal, run out, for 27 when they were 164 in the 29th over. Barnes attempted to pull the ball but instead, ran it from the back of the bat to Matthew Sinclair at deep gully.

He moved several paces down the wicket and then, when he found Howell uninterested in the run, turned and stood several metres out of his ground, simply watching as Sinclair threw down the striker's wicket.

HORNE DAZZLES

Matt Horne scored 68 from 49 balls - his half century from 37 balls - as Auckland trivialised Central Districts total of 258-9 in their State Shield match at Pukekura Park today.

Horne and Llorne Howell put on 108 for Auckland's first wicket in 13 overs, posting the century partnership in less than an hour and from only 10.1 overs - at a flicker under 10 runs per over.

By drinks at the end of 16 overs and as a relative quiet settled over Auckland's innings, they were 119-1 - 140 runs from victory with 34 overs and nine wickets remaining.

Howell was 41 and had faced 42 balls by drinks - a respectable scoring rate but one dwarfed by Horne in his breathtaking beginning to Auckland's innings.

He raced to 40 by the fifth over, taking 16 runs from that over by Michael Mason, by which stage Howell had scored one and had faced only two balls.

Central were powerless to halt Horne's progress. He went on to his 50 in the eighth over, with 11 boundaries and his completed innings of 68 included 15 fours.

CD squandered two chances to break the opening partnership at an earlier stage than the 13th over. Howell was dropped in the sixth over when he was six and Central were 48 - a sharp caught and bowled chance to Andrew Schwass - and dropped again in the 12th over by Brent Hefford and square leg when he was 33 and Auckland were 107.

Horne struck the all to all parts in the ground - in that over of 16 runs from Mason almost literally so. He played majestic drives and pulls, giving the field little chance to respond.

By drinks, when Aaron Barnes joined Howell, some of the momentum of the innings had been lost but Auckland had a huge weight of overs and wickets in its favour.

SMITH IN TOP FORM AS CD MAKE 258

Ben Smith, performing once more with his quiet but impeccable professionalism, led Central Districts to a moderately challenging total of 258-9 as they batted first at Auckland's insistence in their State Shield limited overs match at Pukekura Park today.

Smith scored 83 from 103 balls, adding to his scores of 48 - on this ground - and 66 in previous Shield matches this season , embellishing his average of 28.5 and increasing his strike-rate of .70.

His seamless innings stitched together the middle of Central's innings and while he was at the crease Central added 175 runs at a cost of three wickets. They had lost two wickets for 32 runs before his arrival and they lost three further four wickets for 51 runs after his loss.

Smith, from Worcestershire after Leicestershire, shared partnerships of 57 for the third wicket with Richard King, 49 for the fourth wicket with Bevan Griggs and 69 for the fifth wicket with Glen Sulzberger before his own dismissal. Central were 32-2 when he came to the wicket and 207-5 in the 41st over when he left.

Central didn't quite deliver on the promise Smith created, particularly later in his innings when, with Sulzberger, he took his team from 150 to 200 in only five overs. In that period, the batsmen took 14 from the 38th over, bowled by Guy Coleman and 15 from the 39th bowled by Brooke Walker. They later took another 14 from the 42nd bowled by Llorne Howell.

Smith's innings, which emphasised his solidity and the variety of his strokeplay, included four fours and three sixes. He took his boundaries mostly over and through square leg and mid-wicket but they were not the hallmark of his innings. Much more important to his total and Central's were the singles and twos he took through gaps in the field backward of point, forward of square leg, behind the wicket on the leg side and to the long off and leg-side boundaries forward of the wicket.

He led Central's determined response to Auckland's request that they bat first on a wicket which seamed a little early on and, later gave some desultory assistance to spinners Mark Haslam and Walker.

Smith was finally out to Walker, the only return but a valuable one from the Auckland captain's 10 overs which conceded 54 runs.

There were, additionally, valuable innings of 31 from King, which included six fours, 43 by Sulzberger, who first assisted Smith then took the initiative in the innings from him on his departure in teh 41st over. Campbell Furlong, after Sulzberger, batted till the end of the innings and was 24 not out.

Matt Sinclair, struggling again for a total to emphasise his value to New Zealand, was out for 10 in teh fourth over to a debatable leg before wicket decision.

Haslam bowled well in 10 consecutive overs from the city end in the middle of teh innings, taking 2-28 and Drum, in two spells at the beginning and end of the innings, took 3-46.

Tama Canning had no reward for 51 runs from 10 overs in various spells. Wicketkeeper Reece Young stood up to him through his last few overs at the death.

SMITH CD HERO ONCE AGAIN

Englishman Ben Smith, who has often been the prop on which Central Districts innings have depended this season, compiled another important half century as his team reached 158-4 by the second drinks break in their State Shield match against Auckland at Pukekura Park today.

Smith increased his average of 28.5 per innings in this shield season and lifted his strike-rate of 70 when he reached 62 by the drinks break through partnerships of 57 for the third wicket with Richard King and 49 for the fourth wicket with wicketkeeper Bevan Griggs.

His innings was typically solid and varied and, crucially, kept Central ticking along at more than four per over by the drinks interval at 37 overs.

Central had been propelled into batting on losing the toss and scoring and survival were sometimes duelly difficult tasks but tasks to which Smith proved himself more than equal.

The pitch allowed a little early seam movement for Auckland's quicker bowlers then provided turn for spinners Mark Haslam and Brooke Walker during the middle of the innings, when Smith was relied on to maintain his wicket and the continue the scoring.

He did so intelligently, playing a sensible game of push and run, taking regular singles towards fine leg and with stunned, supple-wristed pushes forward of the crease. His speed between the wickets, his reading of a run was superb.

Nor was his accumulation all a result of that urgency and that finesse. He took boundaries, not frequentlyy but consistently, to the midwicket or backward point boundaries where he found the field thinnest.

Smith came to the wicket when Central were 32-2 in the fifth over, having scored rapidly early in their innings but having, at the same time, lost openers Matthew Sinclair for 10 and John Nelson for 12.

His partnership with King, which took Central to 89 before King's dismissal for 31, recovered their innings. His stand with Bevan Griggs, which brought those 49 runs for the fourth wicket, kept them on track to a reasonable total.

King's innings included six fours and came from 54 overs and ended in the 20th over. By the 25th, the midpoint of the innings, Central was 108-3.

Smith brought up his 50 from 70 balls and with four fours and a six from Brooke Walker which took that bowler out of the Auckland attack and forced their attempt to break the scoring with the reintroduction of Tama Canning.

There were also, among Smith's wide repertoire of shots, a number of fluent drives played as he advanced down the wicket to the spinners.

Haslam's contribution through the middle of the innings, when Central might have used Smith's presence to accelerate their scoring, was a good one and he discharged his 10 overs at a cost of 28 runs and took the wickets of King and Griggs.

SINCLAIR FALLS CHEAPLY AS CD BAT

Matthew Sinclair added another item to a catalogue of recent failures when he was out for 10 within four overs in Central Districts' State Shield match against Auckland at Pukekura Park today.

On this occasion the discarded international might count himself unlucky to have been adjudged lbw to Chris Drum when he had faced only nine balls and when Central, after a cracking start, were 22.

The ball that claimed Sinclair's wicket seemed to have caught him outside his crese and above the knee roll, creating enough doubt about its ultimate course to have weighed heavily in favour of the batsman. Instead, the umpire's answer to Drum's appeal was instantaneous and Sincalir's promising innings was sawn off at its root.

Barring his 90 for Central against Canterbury on this ground on January 2, Sinclair has struggled to create and maintain the sort of form which might challenge his non-selection for the New Zealand one-day team. He is still an oddity for a batsman considered our of form. Even when struggling for runs, Sinclair is a keen timer and a crisp hitter of the ball and his movements at the crease are generally quick and authoritative.

His 10 runs from nine balls today were a case in point. Sinclair is seldom tied down and he gives the impression of solidity and confidence. The runs simply won't come for him.

He played a large part in Central's dashing beginning to their innings after they had lost the toss and been compelled to bat. Auckland looked on a green wicket and when captain Brooke Walker won the toss, he had no hesitation in giving his bowler's its first use.

There was some early seam movement but no extraordinary bounce and several of Sinclair's runs and Central's came from shots which were miscued - french cuts abounded.

Central galloped to 22 from the first three overs, then lost Sinclair to the first ball of the first. They went on to 31 at the end of that over, then to 32 when they lost Sinclair's opening partner, John Nelson of Nelson, caught by wicketkeeper Reece Young from Guy Coleman's first over.

The loss of two wickets within two overs slowed Central's scoring and they had 33 from five overs and 42 from 10. Then Ben Smith and Richard King reasserted themselves and took Central to 75-2 after 15 overs.

Drinks followed after 16 overs when King was 22 and Smith 20. Both had engaged in some selective shot making, taking fours to the straight boundaries on the the offside and through midwicket.

Drum had 1-31 from his opening spell of seven overs and Coleman 1-27 from six. Coleman's figures were inflated by seven wides.

SET TO START ON TIME

The possibility of rain - as an occasional rather than a permanent presence - hangs like a noxious cloud over the State Shield match between Central Districts and Auckland at leafy Pukekura Park today.

The day's forecast promises little more than a continuation of the dour conditions which have prevailed throughout this summer, not only in Taranaki but around New Zealand, and which have been so hostile towards cricket in any of its forms.

Showers have fallen in a desultory fashion through the early morning in New Plymouth, but mainly to the north of Pukekura Park which has its own, almost tropical, microclimate. That rain passed before the players began their warm-ups this morning and there was a period, in itse absence, of cheering sunshine, boding well for the remainder of the day.

There was a bowl of blue sky above this green glade, which sits high on a hill on New Plymouth's eastern flank looking out upon the Tasman Sea, and only a light furze of white cloud crossing the ground under sail, pushed by a northerly wind.

The conditions are reminiscent of those which prevailed when Central played a four day and a one day match against Canterbury on this ground over Christmas and New Year. Then, showers and fine spells vied for predomination and few sessions passed without some interuption.

Nor may today be rain free. The bright sunshine which has intensified in the two hours preceding the match may be a quaint deception. The weather changes in this seaside city with startling rapidity and the prospect of showers through the day has not yet receded.

There were 2500 spectators here for the Canterbury Shield match. There are not yet anywhere near that number. The holidays are over - many of those enthusiasts are back at work - and the weather will have deterred a few who might wait till later in the day before risking their entry fee.

Neither side has been moved to make major lineup changes for a match which holds considerable importance. Central named the same XI that beat Auckland by 19 runs in Auckland on Saturday, naming Jamie How 12th man.

Auckland left out all-rounder Terry Crabb, resisting the temptation to remove a batsman from their lineup.

The visitors also won the toss and chose to bowl on a new pitch which seems unusually green. The pitch is hard, almost shiny, but also streaked with ridges of grass.

Teams:

Central Districts: Matthew Sinclair, Ben Smith, Richard King, Glen Sulzberger (captain), John Nelson, Campbell Furlong, Bevan Griggs, Andrew Schwass, Michael Mason, Brent Hefford, Lance Hamilton, Jamie How (12th man).

Auckland: Brooke Walker (captain), Matt Horne, Llorne Howell, Aaron Barnes, Tama Canning, Guy Coleman, Chris Drum, Mark Haslam, Nick Horsley, Kyle Mills, Reece Young, Terry Crabb (12th man)..