Another rain day raises questions

ALL right. Who did the rain dance?

Day two of Otago’s Plunket Shield match against Auckland at the University of Otago Oval yesterday was called off without a ball bowled.

The same happened on day one.

It is the earliest in the year a firstclass game has been scheduled in Dunedin, so it raises the question of whether it was a tooambitious piece of planning.

The game could have been staged in Alexandra, where the average amount of rain in October would be lucky to fill a paddling pool.

But Otago Cricket Association chief executive Mike Coggan defended the decision to host the game in Dunedin.

‘‘If you look at last spring we didn’t have the extremely high levels of rain we’ve had this month,’’ he said.

There has been more than 150mm of rainfall in the city during the past 30 days, and that has left the surface at the venue sodden.

‘‘We’ve had three to four weeks of record rainfall. It just hasn’t stopped and that has been our big problem in terms of the first two days here.

‘‘Noone wants to sit around in the changing rooms for a couple of days. All we can do is hope that we have windy drying weather and we get the next two days of play completed.’’

Hosting a fourday match comes with a steep price tag. Venue hire, airfares, accommodation and player payments add up quickly.

‘‘It is well known to play four days of cricket is not cheap. I couldn’t give you an exact number but, look, it is frustrating. ‘‘But let’s just hope we get two full days in.’’

A At the Basin Reserve, Wellington is 186 for six in its second innings. It leads Canterbury by 296 with a day to play.

Black Cap Tom Latham led the fightback for the visitors with a double century. He was eventually undone for 224 and Canterbury declared shortly after at 415 for nine.

Wellington’s Devon Conway followed his 327 not out with 66 in his second dig to go past Bert Sutcliffe’s 1952/53 record for most runs in a firstclass match in New Zealand. It has been a productive pitch for batsmen.

The game between Central Districts and Northern Districts at Mt Maunganui has tipped in favour of the visitors. Central posted 371 and Northern slumped to 202 all out with two days to play.

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Noone wants to sit around in the changing rooms for a couple of days. All we can do is

hope that we have windy, drying weather and we get the next two days of play completed