Auckland batsmen prosper on home deck
Canterbury were unable to prevent Auckland from keeping their slim Plunket Shield title hopes alive as the home team dominated the opening day of the final round at Colin Maiden Park in Auckland yesterday.
Auckland racked up three batting bonus points as they amassed 372 for five from 97 overs with Tim Mcintosh, Anaru Kitchen, Gareth Hopkins and Colin de Grandhomme all posting half centuries.
Only Black Caps squad member Andrew Ellis had much success at stifling the Auckland advance, capturing four for 96 with his medium pacers while he had a hand in all the dismissals by catching Mcintosh off spinner Tim Johnston.
Auckland seems certain to bat on and collect a fourth batting bonus point available at 400 which is only 28 runs away with 13 overs before bonus points expire.
However, they remain a championship longshot after Northern Districts added another four to their tally by dismissing Central Districts for 342 at Napier.
Northern Districts only need to avoid a batting meltdown and bag one batting bonus point on reaching 250 to claim the Shield.
Meanwhile, there will be no Black Caps tours for Otago quick bowler Neil Wagner this winter.
It had been assumed that the South African-born 26-year-old would become eligible to represent his adopted country next month.
But speaking in the wake of Wagner’s career-best bowling performance of seven for 46, against Wellington in Dunedin yesterday, New Zealand Cricket’s national selection manager Kim Littlejohn said that the left-armer’s international debut was still a few months off.
‘‘At this stage it won’t be until October, at the earliest,’’ Littlejohn said last night. ‘‘From what I can gather, a lot of people had assumed that Neil would qualify for New Zealand after four cricket seasons,’’ he said.
‘‘But he actually has to live in New Zealand for at least 183 days in four consecutive years and my understanding is that Neil didn’t arrive here until October 2008.’’
Littlejohn said the whole situation was more complicated than people might imagine.
Even things like representing Otago at the Champions League Twenty20 tournament, in India, were included by the International Cricket Council in their eligibility calculations.
A definitive qualification date is being sought from the ICC, but hasn’t yet been given.
Wagner’s bag of wickets against Wellington yesterday marked the third time in as many matches that he’s registered his best firstclass bowling figures against the Firebirds.
His performance yesterday saw the Firebirds shot out for just 112, having been asked to bat by Otago.
Otago had reached 195 for two, with Hamish Rutherford striking an unbeaten century, when bad light stopped play.