Furious hitting gives Canty cricket win

Press, 14 December 1985, Page 80

Furious hitting gives Canty cricket win

With the captain, David Hartshorn, leading the way with the bat, Canterbury pulled off a brilliant outright win over Northern Districts at Ham yesterday to maintain its lead in the national Prudential under 20 cricket tournament going into the last round. Given only 20 minutes and 20 overs to score 185, Canterbury completed the task with three balls and two wickets to spare. Hartshorn’s blazing 58 in the middle of the innings was the crucial knock, but there was also excellent work, under mounting pressure at the end, by Greg Lewis and Jon Preston. Canterbury had earlier taken first innings points, and Hartshorn’s tactic of feeding Northern second innings runs in the hope of a declaration, paid off handsomely. Darren Murray, better known as a batsman, was given 13 overs and he dutifully conceded 101 runs as Brian Spragg raced to an unbeaten century, sharing an opening stand of 158 with Kevin Morey.

Canterbury’s first innings lead of 42 was achieved notably by sound contributions from the lower-order pair of Mark Hastings and Grant Dickson, who both reached the 40s after the earlier batsmen had been made to struggle by the varied Northern attack. Wellington beat Otago outright yesterday, and until Canterbury’s late coup, had shared the tournament lead with Canterbury. Fred Beyeler, with five for 39 from 27 overs in Otago’s second innings, again did the job for Wellington, although there was stouter resistance from Otago the second time round. Peter Dobbs, Grant Dixon, Nick Adams and Graham Pitches all made useful contributions to Otago’s second innings of 259, and succeeded in making Wellington bat again. In a close tussle, Auckland wrested first innings points from Central Districts. A feature of the day’s play was the stubborn knock of Central’s John Wilson, who opened the innings and

was last out after five hours and 41 minutes at the crease. Wilson faced 320 balls for his 65, but saw his side go under by seven runs. Scores.— Northern Districts 172 and 224/2 declared (B. Spragg 109 not out, K. Morey 89; D. Murray 2/101) lost to Canterbury 214/8 declared (M. Hastings 43, G. Dickson 40 not out, J. Preston 35; G. Bradburn 3/ 50, A. Somani 2/38) and 186/8 (B. Hartland 27, D. Hartshorn 58; M. Sua 4/70, G. Bradbum 3/41) by two wickets. Auckland 183 and 96/5 (P. Lindberg 27 not out; R. Hay 2/ 24) beat Central Districts 176 (J. Wilson 65; B. Barrett 2/25, A. Sigley 3/44, B. Roberts 4/37) on the first innings.

Otago 82 and 159 (P. Dobbs 27, G. Dixon 39, N. Adams 35, G. Pitches 26; F. Beyeler 5/39, J. Millmow 2/33, B. Williams 2/45) lost to Wellington 212/8 declared and 32/0 by 10 wickets.

Points after four rounds.— Canterbury 50, Wellington 44, Auckland 34, Central Districts 22, Northern Districts 21, Otago 9.