Canterbury faces the prospect of humiliating defeat
By
JOHN COFFEY
A decisive victory to Auckland is the only logical outcome of the Shell Trophy cricket match which ends at Lancaster Park today. Canterbury will resume its second innings with a deficit of 182 runs and having already lost two wickets.
Auckland batted only as long as it needed Derek Scott to reach a half-cen-tury in his debut before declaring at 454 for five yesterday morning. It then dismissed Canterbury for 235, enforced the follow-on and had the home side 37 for two by stumps. Last week-end’s Shell Cup success was reduced to a fast-fading memory as Auckland thoroughly dominated proceedings over the past two days. The Canterbury batsmen lacked Trevor Franklin’s sustained application or Dipak Patel’s sheer artistry. As if to emphasise the deficiencies shown in the first innings, both Anup Nathu and Peter Kennedy were out to full tosses after Canterbury had been sent back in.
Even the wholehearted efforts of Craig Thiele and the encouraging form of David Hartshorn when Canterbury was in the field have now been overshadowed by the Auckland bowling. In particular, Auckland has benefited from Gary Troup’s penetration, Brian Barrett’s emerging potential, and the persistence of Patel and Alan Hunt, who ■ capitalised on an increasing amount of spinning assistance from the pitch.
In contrast to Canterbury’s costly catching errors, Auckland has been quick to recover from mistakes. The complete Auckland display testifies to a
depth of talent which other provinces, with fewer than five national representatives, can only envy. The only substance to Canterbury’s batting was a 100-run fifth-wicket partnership between Rod Latham and David Stead. For 84 minutes they made a somewhat lurching advance, the equally abrupt spurts and lulls proving entertaining if not guaranteeing permanency. Latham included 10 fours and two massive hits over the long-on boundary, having decided, quite rightly, that there was a need to wrest the initiative from Auckland. Stead used a mix of cuts and slices to exasperate Barrett, but eventually emulated his partner in giving Franklin catching practice. That left Hartshorn to display quite some grit before being last out. But in spite of comparatively modest returns, Paul McEwan managed two provincial milestones — in the morning he surpassed the late lan Cromb to be the fifth most prolific runscorer and just before stumps McEwan exceeded 3000 runs for his province. The immediate accolades, though, were with Auckland’s bowlers. Particular interest was centred upon the youthful Barrett, who showed maturity in recovering from fluctuations of length and harsh treatment by Latham and Stead to
finish with a most respectable analysis.
Barrett’s second ball in first-class cricket was slashed by Kennedy and dropped by Patel at second slip; Kennedy was tempted again by the next delivery and Franklin handled cleanly in the gully. Barrett later returned to’ win his duel with Hartshorn, and then again to remove Kennedy a second time — ironically, moments after Franklin had put down a catch at third slip. Far from resting after his brilliant batting of the previous day, Patel made his Auckland debut doubly memorable by counting Vaughan Brown and McEwan among his victims and removing Stead and Ash Hart with consecutive balls.
Canterbury has not been so humbled by an Auckland team on Lancaster Park since the first half of the 1985 Ranfurly Shield Challenge. This time the task is far greater if an honourable loss — should there still be such a thing — is to be achieved.
AUCKLAND First innings T. J. Franklin run out . . 176 P. A. Home c Latham b
Thiele 32 M. J. Greatbatch c MacDonald b Brown ... 7 D. N. Patel b Thiele ... 174 D. G. Scott not out ... . 50 A. J. Hunt lbw b Thiele . 8 P. N. Webb not out ... . 1 Extras (bl, lb 3, nbl, wl)6 Total (for 5 wkts dec.) 454
Fall: 52, 65, 343, 426, 449. Bowling.—C. H. Thiele 32.3, 7, 103, 3 (wl); S. R. Tracy 17,1, 86, 0 (nbl); R. T. Latham 3,1,13, 0; V. R. Brown 25, 1, 76, 1; D. W. Stead 12, 1, 43, 0; G. K. MacDonald 21, 4, 74, 0; D. J. Hartshorn 21, 8, 55, 0. CANTERBURY First innings A. Nathu c Kelly b Troup 8 P. G. Kennedy c Franklin b Barrett 22 P. E. McEwan c Kelly b Pate] 22 V. R. Brown c Webb b Patel 11 R. T. Latham c Franklin b Hunt 64 D. W. Stead c Franklin b Patel 46 D. J. Hartshorn lbw b Barrett 38 .A. W. Hart c Greatbatch b Patel 0 G. K. MacDonald c Kelly b Hunt 9 C. H. Thiele b Barrett . . 4 S. R. Tracy not out ... . 1 Extras (b2, lb 4, nb4) 10 Total 235 Fall: 20, 37, 62, 71, 171, 187, 187, 206, 228, 235. Bowling.—G. B. Troup 10, 2, 29,1 (nbl); W. Watson 7, 2,16, 0; D. N. Patel 31, 8, 76, 4; B. J. Barrett 12, 1, 54, 3 (nb3); A. J. Hunt 21, 7, 54, 2. Second innings A. Nathu c Greatbatch b Watson 5 P. G. Kennedy b Barrett. 14 P. E. McEwan not but . . 14 Extras (nb4) 4 Total (for 2 wkts) 37 Fall: 15, 37. Bowling.—G. B. Troup 4,2, 3, 0; D. N. Patel 11, 6, 18, 0; W. Watson 4,0, 9, 1 (nb4); B. J. Barrett 3.2, 1,7, 1. Umpires: B. L. Aldridge and F. R. Goodall.
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