Outright win in cricket to Ashburton

Press, 16 January 1984, Page 3

Outright win in cricket to Ashburton

From special correspondent Alexandra After two days of evenly contested cricket, Ashburton finally secured an outright win over Central Otago in its Cyclone Hawke Cup challenge match which finished at Alexandra yesterday.

It was a game in which fortunes fluctuated throughout, but the toss, won by Warren Eddington from Ashburton, and the grounding of eight chances by the Central Otago fieldsmen during the Ashburton first innings, had a direct bearing on the result. Central Otago was put into bat first and the prelunch session was vital for both teams.

Geoff Blakely and Peter Cotton gave the home side a sound start with a 45-run partnership, but in the space of seven runs the Ashburton bowlers removed four batsmen including the main threat to them, lan Rutherford. At 52 for four wickets, the side had its back to the wall.

The skipper, Bryan McSkimming, accepted the challenge and, in an authoritative innings, knocked up 91 runs. With Martin Flannery, McSkimming added 72 in a face-saving seventhwicket stand.

With the tail exposed, McSkimming terminated his 171-minute stay when playing all over a ball from Lindsay Stoddart after hitting seven fours and looking certain to reach a century. The Central Otago first innings closed at 197, with Stoddart fully deserving his figures of five for 38 from 23.5 overs.

In the period -before stumps on the first day, Central took two wickets but could not break the stand by Denis Mabley and Jeff Spicer, which had

yielded 50 runs. The pair carried on to add 91 runs for the partnership, which ended when Mabley became the first of McSkimming’s six victims. Mabley’s 59, together with the 63 scored by Spicer and 21 from Richard Ashworth, added solidity to the Ashburton innings but by the lunch break Central had fought back to have Ashburton 183 for eight wickets, still 14 in arrears. Lindsay Richardson capitalised on two missed . chances to finally steer Ashburton to a first-innings lead and two runs later, the innings was declared closed. McSkimming ended with six for 62 with support from Mark Dowling and Colin Buttar. With nothing to lose, the Central batsmen hit a rapid 181 in the session before tea. Peter Cotton, Rutherford, McSkimming and Ken McKnight all made useful scores, to set Ashburton 180 runs for the outright win in 130 minutes. At 26 for three wickets, Ashburton was in trouble but Eddington (39) and Jeff Spicer (42) kept its hopes alive and the win was finally realised through the efforts of Jeff Wright, who was unbeaten on 36, and John Richardson, with one of the mandatory 20 overs remaining. Scores:— Ashburton 199/9 dec. (J. Spicer 63, D. Mabley 59, R. Ashworth 21; B. McSkimming 6/62) and 181/8 (W. Eddington 49, Spicer 42, J. Wright 36 not out, G. Spicer 23; McSkimming 3/92, M. Dowling 2/33) beat Central Otago 197 (McSkimming 91, P. cotton 39, G. Blakely 24; L. Stoddart 5/ 38, M. Holmes 2/47) and 181/8 dec. (Cotton 42, I. Rutherford 33, McSkimming 33; K. McKnight 30; S. Sutcliff 5/94, P. Burton 3/86.