Wellington maintained their lead in the State Shield one-day competition when they eked out a precarious 10-run win over Central Districts in a rain-affected match at Waikanae Park today
Steve McMorran20-Jan-2002Wellington maintained their lead in the State Shield one-day competition when they eked out a precarious 10-run win over Central Districts in a rain-affected match at Waikanae Park today.Central captain Glen Sulzberger played a courageous innings, batting with a broken finger which kept him from the field and from the bowling crease for most of Wellington’s innings, to lead his bottom-placed team to the brink of a battling victory.Sulzberger made 54 as Central chased a revised total of 176 after Wellington had made 160/8 batting first in a match reduced to 46 overs per side because of rain.Showers interrupted the match twice during Wellington’s innings, for 20 minutes after 10 overs when they were 33/0 and for 48 minutes after 33 overs when they were 102/3. The combined result of those delays was that four overs were stripped from the innings of each side and Central were given an enlarged winning target under the necessary Duckworth-Lewis calculation.The record will show, therefore, that after Wellington had reached that total of 160 in 46 overs, Central made 165 in 44.2 overs and were beaten by 10 runs. Such are the oddities of matches influenced by rain.With Sulzberger’s brave guidance Central appeared, until the very last stages of their innings, to be heading for their second consecutive win over Wellington at Waikanae. They needed 48 runs from the last 10 overs with five wickets in hand and only 18 runs from the last five overs with three wickets standing and Sulzberger still at the crease.But the match tipped in Wellington’s favour when Paul Hitchcock dismissed Sulzberger and Michael Mason with consecutive balls in the 42nd over to leave Central 158/9. They still needed 14 runs from 18 balls with their last pair at the wicket and 11 runs from 12 balls when the 44th over had been bowled.Matthew Walker wrapped up the win for Wellington when he had Brent Hefford caught by Chris Nevin from the second ball of the 45th over and Wellington sneaked home with 10 balls to spare.Wellington will count themselves fortunate to have won this match. Their batting lacked urgency as it had when they were beaten, for the first time in this Shield season, by 36 runs by Canterbury on Friday.Wellington’s running between wickets was poor and many singles, many twos, were passed up by batsmen who either showed themselves poor judges of a run or were too casual or too wary.The first rain interruption occasioned a loss of only 20 minutes and no change in the number of overs bowled. The second rain delay, which meant the total time lost exceeded an hour, brought about the reduction in overs and left Wellington regretting a pedestrian start.They were then 102/3 at the recalculation and they managed to added only 58 more runs, for five wickets, in the last 13 overs.Run-scoring was never easy in this match. The wicket block at pretty Waikanae Park has been upgraded since last season but it still lacked pace and offered assistance to both seam and spin bowlers.Wellington’s first four batsmen were out to catches in front of the wicket, at cover, mid off and midwicket, suggesting that rather than misreading the length of deliveries, those batsmen were suprised by balls that stopped.Nevin, who matched Sulzberger’s total of 54, was the only top order batsman to prosper. But he was still unusually subdued and batted 103 minutes for his half century. He hit eight fours including three from fluent drives through cover and mid off, another from a superb cut forward of point.He put on 65 in an opening stand with Matthew Bell which lasted 76 minutes and he was out when Wellington was 88/3 in the 28th over.David Sales and Grant Donaldson made moderate contributions in the middle of the innings – Sales making 24 from 51 balls and Donaldson 19 from 48 balls.Walker, who made another strong all-round contribution, made 24 from 22 balls with two fours and a six.Andrew Schwass, as the best of Central’s bowlers, took 4-35 from nine overs.Central’s progress was, at first, even more painstaking than Wellington’s and they had only six runs on the board from six overs. Ashley Turner, who joined the team in place of Andrew Penn, sent down three consecutive maidens at the start of his seven overs. He finished with two for 23.Mathew Sinclair, with 33 from 69 balls, and Ben Smith, with 15, helped lift the scoring rate. Central were 71/3 when Sinclair was out in the 23rd over and 97/4 when Smith left six overs later. Sulzberger came to the wicket on Sinclair’s dismissal and stayed for 92 minutes, through almost 20 overs, to reach a half century which was peppered with seven boundaries.He turned the match in Central’s favour and though they lost Bevan Griggs and Campbell Furlong, the best of their remaining batsmen, for small totals, they retained the initiative till the dying stages.The run out of Schwass for eight in the 39th over was costly and Sulzberger’s own dismissal was the final blow.Wellington could not rest comfortably even with the final pair at the wicket. They would have remembered last year’s Shell Cup match against Central at this venue when the last-wicket combination, scoring 43, steered their side to a narrow win.Walker filled out his outstanding individual performance with a return of three for 25 from 8.2 overs while Hitchcock, economical again, took two for 27.