Canty regains trophy with win in last over

Press, 28 November 1983, Page 40

Canty regains trophy with win in last over

By

JOHN COFFEY

A lusty, lofted blow to the extra cover boundary by Richard Leggat enabled Canterbury to regain the N.S.S. Trophy with just three deliveries and two wickets remaining in the one-day cricket match with Wellington at Burnside Park yesterday. Leggat had already endeared himself to the spectators by hitting the only two sixes of the game to keep Canterbury on course towards its target of 142 runs.

Rain earlier in the day caused the players to leave the field twice and the number of overs available to each side was reduced from 50 to 35.

Wellington was the more disadvantaged, even though the Canterbury bowlers had to use a wet ball. The second stoppage happened after the Wellington opening batsmen, Bruce Edgar and Robert Vance, had accumulated 62 runs, but their team-mates were forced to thrash around in the 17 overs that remained.

Both Edgar and Vance, and, later, John Morrison were in good touch and Canterbury might well have faced a considerably tougher assignment than 4.06 runs per over had Wellington not been forced to suddenly accelerate its pace. Vance was out soon after the resumption, giving Ken Taylor his first wicket in inter-provincial cricket. Ash Hart, the Canterbury wicket-keeper, smartly stumped Edgar on the leg

side, and Taylor bent back the middle stump when Grant Cederwall tried to hit to long-on. Although Evan Gray and Morrison enjoyed some success in getting the ball across the damp outfield, David Stead was to be the dominant figure during the second half of the Wellington innings. Bowling his mediumpacers with commendable accuracy, and slipping in the occasional leg-spinner for variation, Stead dismissed Tony Pigott and Morrison with successive deliveries and thoroughly deserved his five wickets.

Pigott, the young Sussex medium-fast bowler starting his second season with Wellington, almost single-hand-edly prevented Canterbury from achieving its task. Wrenching assistance from the pitch to complement his accuracy, Pigott conceded only four runs from his first spell of six overs. He returned later to dismiss Stead and his final analysis of two for 11 from 10 overs earned him the “man of the match” award.

But Pigott’s partner, Cederwall was by no means as dominant, and Canterbury was never much behind the necessary run-rate. Once Peter Rattray was, into stride and Pigott was rested, Canterbury seemed likely to cruise to victory. Rattray, driving majestically and cutting with authority, and Cran Bull added 48 runs in 35 minutes for the fourth wicket. Bull, however, was athletically caught by Morrision, Pigott

came back to bowl, and Rattray made a misjudgment and was stumped by Ervin McSweeney from Gray’s bowling. The match was again very much in the balance.

It was to be Leggat’s moment. His first six, to long-on, was caught just over the boundary, and the second, also from Gray, was a sweetly-timed sweep. Fortunately for Canterbury, Pigott’s maximum of 10 overs was reached with two still to be bowled. Fourteen runs were wanted from the 12 deliveries. If Leggat’s sweep was Canterbury’s highlight in Gray’s last over, then Wellington took encouragement from the running out of Steve Bateman and Vance’s catching of Hart. Leggat scambled a single off the final ball to keep the strike.

Now five were needed, and a newcomer, Andrew Davie, was to bowl. Leggat played and missed the first delivery, gained two runs from a top edge off the second. But he used the middle of his bat for the boundary which clinched the result for Canterbury. Scores were.— WELLINGTON B. A. Edgar std Hart b Stead 31

R. H. Vance c Hart b Taylor 32 E. J. Gray c Hart b Bateman 25 G. N. Cederwall b Taylor 2 E. B. McSweeney c D’Oliveira b Stead . . 7 •J. F. M. Morrison c Bateman b Stead 21 A. C. S. Pigott c Rattray b Stead 4 R. W. Ormiston lbw b Thiele 0 P. J. Holland not out 4 S. J. Maguiness c Bull b Stead 5 A. R. Davey not out. ... 0 Extras (lb 8, w2) 10 Total for 9 wkts 141 Bowling— C.H. Thiele 5,2, 13, 1; S. N. Bateman 8,1, 31, 1; V. R. Brown 5,1, 14, 0; K. G. Taylor 8,0, 41, 2; D. W. Stead 9, O, 32, 5. CANTERBURY R. T. Latham b Pigott . . 17 P. J. Rattray std McSweeney b Gray 55 D. B. D’Oliveira c McSweeney b Maguiness ... 0 V. R. Brown c McSweeney b Maguiness 8 C. L. Bull c Morrison b Gray 23 D. W. Stead b Pigott ... 2 R. I. Leggat not out. .. . 30 S. N. Bateman run out . . 2 A. W. Hart c Vance b Gray 0 C. H. Thiele not out. . . . 0 Extras (bl, lb2, w3)... 6 Total for 8 wkts 143 Bowling.— A. C. S. Pigott 10, 4, 11, 2; G. N. Cederwall 10, 1, 51, 0; S. J. Maguiness 4,0, 19, 2; A. R. Davey 2.3, 0, 22, 0; E. J. Gray 8,0, 34, 3.