Auck. out for Shell win

Press, 20 March 1978, Page 30

Auck. out for Shell win

By

R. T. BRITTENDEN

After the in fighting of a test series which made stroke-making an extravagance and almost an example of moral decline, Auckland’s batting in the Shell Trophy final against Canterbury was utterly refreshing. A fine century by Austin Parsons, and a splendid one by Mark Burgess carried Auckland through to a vital first-innings lead on Saturday. It will be a minor miracle if Canterbury can achieve the victory it now needs to complete a clean sweep of the main trophies this season and so crown its centennial year. Auckland thoroughly deserves its commanding position. On Saturday morning, it wound up Canterbury’s innings at 270 and then, surviving a few setbacks after lunch, took control. With a stream of magnificent strokes, Parsons and Burgess scored 175 for the third wicket and Auckland went on to score 346 for nine wickets in its allotted 85 overs. Yesterday, play began nearly three hours later, all but extinguishing Canterbury’s hopes of a revival. At the close of play, Canterbury, at 70 for one wicket,

was still in arrears. Although play will begin an hour early today, at 10 a.m., Canterbury has an almost impossible" task, for the pitch yesterday was still mocking the bowlers. The dominance of Auckland bats was remarkable. It is a long time since Canterbury bowlers have been asking themselves so regularly where to put the ball next.

In the first hour after lunch on Saturday, when Auckland lost both its opening batsmen, only 29 runs were made from 13 overs. In the next hour, 15 overs were bowled and 91 exhilarating runs were added Auckland progressed for a while at quite a dizzy speed: the total racing from 100 to 150 in only 24 minutes. It was a triumph for both the main batsmen. It was Parsons’s first century in New Zealand and the first for Burgess at Lancaster Park. They were innings without any major faults: almost without flaw. Parsons was a little more deliberate than his partner and was a long time going from 47 to 50. But he demonstrated his quality with powerful driving, swift cuts, and the elan with which he pulled anything short. Burgess’s innings was a cricketing classic. Often in the past he has prefaced fine innings with some anxiety, knees dropping in the defensive stroke. This time he began as if he knew he held the strings and he made the bowlers his puppets. It was not as if they appeared to be bowling particularly badly but Burgess and Parsons, using their feet to advance from the crease area to convert a ball of defensive length into one to yield runs, put them to the sword.

Burgess cut supremely well. He had the ball scudding through the covers with beautifully timed, graceful drives and worked it off his pads elegantly. He hooked and pulled and admitted later that he had quite en-

joyed it “after all that blocking in the tests.”

Parsons took 215 minutes over his century, the second half of it in 74 minutes. Burgess was 50 minutes faster to three figures. If there was a weakness in the batting, it was in the regularity with which communications between Burgess and Parsons broke down. Their yeas and nays and starts and stops offered Canterbury its best prospect of taking a wicket. The Canterbury bowling was reduced almost to tatters. David Trist, after bowling tidily and earnestly, suddenly cost 20 in an over. Stephen Boock, who had had batsmen everywhere under a spell all season, was hit for 38 in four overs, although one of them was a maiden. Bevan Congdon kept some sort of order and David Stead, under much pressure, bowled better than most. By the end of Saturday’s play, Boock had none for 80 from 18 overs. Yesterday, as Auckland chased runs in its dying overs, his magic returned and he finished with five wickets, a just reward for his attacking methods. Canterbury batted for two hours last everting but Auckland had no intention of letting the batsmen restore the situation. Only 19 overs were bowled to widely spread defensive fields and Canterbury did well to reach 70.

There was some fine running between the wickets as Barry Hadlee and Peter Coman scored 58 for the first. A slow outfield hindered them but it was a measure of Auckland’s defensive policy that when 50 came up in the thirteenth over, only one boundary had been hit and it had come from an edge. Coman batted with admirable responsibility and young Mark Snedden bowled ably for Auckland, worrying the batsmen with the occasional ball running away from the bat. It is nearly 10 years since Auckland last won a firstclass cricket trophy. If it

contains Canterbury today, it will be a success richly deserved. CANTERBURY First innings P. G. Coman c Snedden b Cushen .. .19 B, G. Hadlee c Stott b Cushen .. .72 N. M. Parker c Burgess b Stott 9 P. E. McEwan lbw b Stott 13 B. E. Congdon e Vivian b Snedden 73 D. W. Stead lbw b Snedden 29 R. J. Hadlee c Parsons b Stott .. .. 13 M. L. Ryan lbw b Stott .. 0 J. G. Phillips not out .. 21 D. G. Trist c Vivian b Cushen 5 S L. Boock c Reid b Stott 4 Extras (bl, IblO, nbl) .. 12 Total 270 Fall: 46, 62, 90, 153, 213, 230, 230, 257, 264. Bowling: J, A. Cushen, 18 0. 62, 3; M. Snedden, 11, 1, 34, 2; L. W. Stott, 26.5, 8. 70, 5; J. M. Mclntyre 22. 6. 62, 0; H. J. Howarth, 7,0, 30, 0. Second innings P. G. Coman not out . 41 B. G. Hadlee c Reid b Snedden 25 N. M. Parker not out .. .. 0 Extras (bl, lb 3) .. .. 4 Total for one wicket 70 Fall: 58. Bowling: J. A. Cushen, 10, 1, 41, 0; M. Snedden, 9,1, 25, 1; L. W. Stott 3,0, 0, 0. AUCKLAND First innings P. N. Webb lbw b R. Hadlee 22 A. E. W, Parsons b Stead 114 R. Arblaster c Parker b R. Hadlee 0 M. G Burgess e Stead b Boock 132 J. F. Reid c Trist b Boock 16 G. E. Vivian c Stead b Boock 4 H. J. Howarth b Hadlee .. 14 J. M. Mclntyre not out .. 20 L. W. Stott b Boock .. .. 0 M. Snedden b Boock .. .. 4 J. Cushen not out .. .. 8 Extras (bl Ibl, nblO) .. 12 Total ..346

Fall: 63, 70, 245, 295, 300, 302. Bowling: R. J. Hadlee, 23, 3, 84 3: D. G. Trist 12 1, 59, 0; B. E. Congdon, 17, 2, 42, 0; S. L. Boock. 25, 4 120 5; D. W. Stead, 8,1, 29, 1.

Motor-racing.—Porsches have taken the first five places in the twenty-sixth annual 12-hour Sebring race with Brian Redman’s turbo-Porsche driven by Charles Mendez of Tampa finishing first.

Weightlifting.—Yurik Vartanyan of the Soviet Union has set two world records in the lightheavyweight class (82.5 kg at an international weightlifting tournament in Moscow. He lifted 210 kg in the jerk, and his total lift was 375 kg, 2.5 kg more than the previous best set by Trendafil Stoiehev of Bulgaria.