Canterbury continued their momentum towards a Shell Cup semi-final place at Whangarei today. But not without the occasional tremor and many sideways glances at an interesting red/brown Cobham Oval pitch with a tinge of green that coloured the surface and the batsmen's complexions.

The Northern Districts' batsmen's down glances were particularly baleful as Gary Stead won the toss and gave them first look at the vagaries kept under covers through overnight and morning rain that shortened the match to 43 overs a side.

A rollicking start by Daniel Vettori and Mark Bailey, picking 42 off six overs in the wake of Simon Doull's early departure via a messy run out, was no sign of things to come. From 46 for one after eight overs, the tone of the match was set. At the end of 12, Northern were 49 for six and, despite a 37-run seventh wicket partnership between Grant Bradburn and Hamish Marshall, they were never likely to produce a total that was defendable even on a pitch whose holding qualities made scoring difficult.

They reached 134. Bradburn, bowled for 47 off the last ball of the innings, and Daryl Tuffey added 30 for the last wicket but it was the sort of hit-and-miss batting that could hardly be described as setting an example to the top order.

The Canterbury bowlers naturally enjoyed themselves, none more so than this season's new international Chris Martin. His nine overs produced three for 18 and at times he seemed unplayable. A couple of run outs did not help the Northern cause.

Some of the Northern bowlers had a happy time too. And certainly the Canterbury batsmen had as much trouble with the pitch as their Northern counterparts. In a similar pattern to the Northern innings, Canterbury went from 52 for one to 63 for four in the space of four overs as Daniel Vettori and Alex Tait complemented the good work Daryl Tuffey contributed at the start of Northern's bowling effort.

But they never had enough to defend. Chris Harris with an unbeaten 43 righted the innings and, despite a couple of glitches at the other end, Canterbury got home with a couple of overs and four wickets to spare.

Vettori demonstrated that he is coming back, taking two for 23 off his nine overs. Tuffey took two for 14 off seven. Tait and Bradburn chimed in with a wicket each. Between them they forced Canterbury to fight all the way for the two points that take them into the top three of the Shell Cup.

Gary Stead, commenting after the match on the conditions, said, "We'll take the two points but it is an absolute disgrace that two teams with such proud one-day records should be subjected to playing on such a pitch."

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