Central holds whip hand

Press, 20 January 1981, Page 26

Central holds whip hand

PA Palmerston North Central Districts rammed home the advantage against Wellington yesterday, and appears set to take an outright win in the Shell Trophy cricket match at Fitzherbert Park, Palmerston North.

Wellington was fraught with injury problems, and sickness caused by a food-poisoning virus. It made 250 for eight wickets in the allocated 100 overs in its first innings, in reply to Central Districts’ 445 for six wickets. The Wellington captain, John Morrison, was thwarted in his bid to have the game delayed until a noon start, to allow his players to seek medical aid. He was also upset when informed by the Central Districts’ captain, David O’Sullivan, that he was enforcing the follow-on.

Morrison believed that because Wellington had not lost all its wickets in its 100-over first innings, it could not be forced to follow on. However the umpires, Messrs ' David Kinsella and Graham Reardon, told him that the rules of cricket applied after the compulsory closing of the Wellington innings, and that O’Sullivan was quite within his rights in enforcing the follow-on. Central Districts went on to the field again seeking nine Wellington wickets (Richard Reid is out of the game with a broken arm), and quickly had Wellington 25 for three, in spite of being handicapped by an injury to its star opening bowler, Gary Robertson. Brian Cederwall and Evan Gray held Central Districts out to stumps, when the score was 86 for three — 109 runs behind Central.