Doody stood at the crease for some time after being given out caught behind.

Brian McKechnie, the convener of the Canterbury selectors said last night that he thought the punishment was harsh.

``I would have thought a reprimand would have been appropriate. Other players have done worse and got a reprimand.''

McKechnie said that there was no abuse of the umpires. ``All he did was stand there longer than he should have.'' McKechnie said there was no point appealing the decision.

The loss of Doody is more than offset though by the inclusion of New Zealand's form batsman of the summer, Craig McMillan.

McMillan will probably bat at three, but who will replace Doody as opener had not been decided yesterday.

``I have just been discussing it with Gary Stead,'' said Canterbury coach, Garry MacDonald.

He said he was disappointed with Canterbury's performance against Auckland, which leaves Canterbury tied in third position on eight points with Central Districts and needing to win tonight to secure a place in the play-offs.

``It's been a pretty taxing year, but we've just had a training and I feel pretty good about the way they've trained.

``There was a little edge there. Put it this way, if they were a racehorse, I think they're going to put in a big one,'' said MacDonald. ``We're not going to give this away easily and at times we have been a little soft this year.''

MacDonald said he was unsure if playing at home would be an advantage. ``Once you get into to this situation, it doesn't matter where you play. This is sudden death.

``If we get a good crowd there it will help us. I know it helped us a couple of times in the max tournament. It gives another 5 per cent of advantage.''

Canterbury: Gary Stead (captain), Llorne Howell, Craig McMillan, Chris Harris, Scott Pawson, Hamish Barton, Gareth Hopkins, Stephen Cunis, Shane Bond, Warren Wisneski, Mark Priest, Chris Martin.