Lance Cairns saves dull affair

Press, 28 December 1985, Page 44

Lance Cairns saves dull affair

PA Tauranga Northern Districts, needing nine runs to win, lost their last wicket with two balls remaining of the Shell Cup one-day cricket match against Wellington at Tauranga yesterday. The man who turned a dull affair into an exciting finish was the Nothern Districts all-rounder, Lance Cairns. Northern was 65 for six when Cairns came into bat. With four sixes, five fours and numerous other colourful shots, Cairns top-scored for the day with 60. But with the second-to-last ball of the 48th over, an Englishman, Paul Allott,

bowled Cairns. Cairns’ was the eighth wicket to fall, with the total at 146, chasing 162 to win. Wellington scored 161 in its innings and this was considered not enough to win, though enough on a slow wicket to make things interesting, but Northern replied with only 153. Four wickets, including those of Barry Cooper and the former New Zealand captain, Geoff Howarth, fell for only 25 runs. Only Bruce Blair stayed around, but he was eventually caught half-way through the innings, Northern having scored only 41 runs from the 25 overs.

All seemed lost and a time finish looked certain. Then Cairns thrilled a big crowd for 74 minutes and all but carried Northern to a win. The top Wellington bowler was Allott, with four for 12 off his allotted overs. Cairns was named man of the match. Earlier, the opener, Bruce Edgar, top-scored for Wellington with 44, while a 50run fifth-wicket partnership between Andrew Jones and Ervin McSweeney helped boost their score. Apart from Cairns, the game was uneventful, all the batsmen having problems on the slow wicket.

WELLINGTON B. A. Edgar lbw b Childs 44 R. H. Vance c Blair b Treiber 1 J. V. Coney b Treiber. . . 1 E. J. Gray b Blair. .... 9 A. H. Jones b Cairns ... 32 E. B. McSweeney c Kuggeleijn b Treiber ... 38 T. D. Ritchie c Young b Treiber 9 S. J. McGuiness run out . 5 G. R. Larsen not out . . . 3 P. J. Allott c Childs b Cairns 1 EL J. Chatfield not out . . 3 Extras 15 Total (for 9 wkts) 161 Fall: 8, 12, 48, 77, 127, 146, 152, 154, 157. Bowling.— Treiber 9,2, 28, 4; Cairns 10, 1, 33, 2; Childs 6,0, 18, 1; Carrington 7,1, 23, 0; Kuggeleijn 10, 3, 16, 0; Blair 8, 1. 28, L

NORTHERN DISTRICTS L. M. Crocker c Vance b Allott 2 R. Mawhinney st McSweeney b Larsen 5 B. R. Blair c Jones b Allott 20 B. G. Cooper b Maguiness 3, G. P. Howarth c Gray b Maguiness 2 C. M. Kuggeleijn c Ritchie b Larsen 25 B. A. Young c and b Gray. 15 B. L. Cairns b Allott ... 60 M. J. Childs not out 6 S. M. Carrington c Larsen b Chatfield 1 K. Treiber b Allott .... 0 Extras 14 Total 153 Fall: 3, 18, 23, 25, 41, 65, 90, 146 149. Bowling— Chatfield 10, 3, 26, 1; Allott 9.4, 2, 12, 4; Larsen 10, 1, 22, 2; Maguiness 10, 1, 36, 2; Gray 10, 2, 48, 1.