overthrows and sixer end match Otago chases runs, has thrilling outright win

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32801, 29 December 1971, Page 20

overthrows and sixer end match Otago chases runs, has thrilling outright win

(New Zealand Press Association]

DUNEDIN.

Set the tremendous task of making 126 runs off 18 overs when the outfield was wet and slow, Otago scored an almost incredible win, by six wickets, over Canterbury in the Plunket Shield cricket match at Carisbrook yesterday.

When G. T. Dowling declared Canterbury’s second innings at 123 for eight wickets just before 5 pan., there were few who gave Otago any chance of scoring runs at the rate of seven an over for the win.

Runs at this rate had not been scored during any other session in the game. In fact, four an over had been a rarity.

And when Otago’s innings entered its seventeenth over, and the fourteenth of the 15 scheduled to be bowled in the last hour, 17 runs were still required, with seven wickets standing. I The Canterbury pace bowler, A. R. Hounsell, took a wicket with the second delivery of this over, after the first had cost three runs, and Otago was four down for 112. Fantastically, 18 more runs came from the over—l 3 of them from the last two deliveries.

The last delivery was swung away for a six by the left-hander, R. W. Hutchison, after seven runs had gone to P. C. Semple from the previous one—four of them from

overthrows—and Otago had thus won with an over to spare.

The prospects of a decision coming from the match ap-

peared slim at the end of the first day, lost because of rain, and even slimmed yesterday when another 34 minutes of play were lost, again because of rain.

Otago threw out the first challenge when it declared its first innings at 161 for four after batting for 97 minutes yesterday morning. This left Canterbury two runs in front.

At lunch, Canterbury was one down for 29 and the Otago bowling was on top to the extent that the visiting side was five down for 86 when the players left the field at 2.45 pun. at the fall of rain. Until that stage an Otago win appeared possible but it seemed the rain had put an end to any definite result

Even when Dowling declared it seemed as if he had asked Otago to achieve the impossible under the conditions, even though the Canterbury attack, as Otago’s had been earlier, was handicapped by a wet ball. But the challenge was accepted from the time the first ball was sent down to

the Otago opener, G. M. Turner. Ten runs came from the over but the New Zealand batsman was out in the second over, to a magnificent catch in the gully by B. F. Hastings off the bowling of D. G. Trist. The dismissal was a severe blow to Otago’s hopes until the other opener, W. L. Blair, and R. W. Anderson set about the bowling, keeping the runs mounting steadily and quickly despite the defensive fields set by Dowling. The pair took the score through to 69 before Blair was run out for 30. Otago had fallen a little behind the target of scoring seven runs an over, but not far enough in arrears to be out of the chase.

And so Otago went through to win in almost incredible fashion, but there is no doubt that it deserved the major spoils from the game. The side batted and bowled

better than Canterbury did throughout the two days, but had the game ended in a draw the team would have taken only three points for first innings performances to Canterbury’s two. The features of Otago’s display were the fine batting of Anderson, who made 45 in each innings, his dashing partnersips with Hutchison (34) in the first innings and Blair in the second, and the grand bowling of M. G. Webb and J. C. Alabaster.

Webb’s great pace again proved too much for most-of the batsmen who faced him and he bowled both Dowling and Ryan in Canterbury’s second innings before either got going. Alabaster, however, was the man who played the major role with his leg-spin bowling. He took four for 25 off 12 overs, at least nine of which were bowled with a wet ball —a great handicap for a bowler of his type.