Cricket Priest, Rutherford hold centre-stage

Press, 11 December 1989, Page 34

Cricket Priest, Rutherford hold centre-stage

By JOHN COFFEY Mark Priest and Ken Rutherford were the dominant figures during the second day of the Canterbury-Otago Shell Trophy cricket match at Lancaster Park on Saturday. But both Priest, the Canterbury left-arm spinner, and Rutherford, Otago’s premier batsman, were to be deprived of their just rewards. It was Priest who was most cruelly treated. While Rutherford’s score of 96 was tantalisingly close to his sixteenth first-class century, it at least testified to the authorative manner in which he started his trophy season. But Priest’s bowling analysis of two for 102 was a mockery of the manner in which he performed. The Canterbury captain, Rod Latham, tossed Priest the ball at 11.30 a.m. and his spell was to last until Otago declared at 5.36 p.m. Priest’s stint of 45 overs was interrupted only by one change of ends and the lunch and tea adjournments. Something of a record might have been created

when two left-arm spinners had turns with the new ball. Priest shared the second new ball with Stu Roberts and when Canterbury batted again Stephen Boock opened the bowling with Neil Mallender. The duel between Priest and Rutherford was absorbing. This was not the Rutherford who breezed to a century from 101 deliverieis in the corresponding match last summer. It was a considerably more disciplined version, as Rutherford stayed more than three hours and faced 190 deliveries in assuring Otago of a sizeable firstinnings advantage. But the Rutherford stamp was all over the fluent driving which provided him with most of his 11 boundaries. A Rutherford in such a mood is just as effective and must attract the attention of the national selectors. On only four occasions in those three hours did Priest waver from line or length sufficiently for Rutherford to stroke the ball away for fours. And only Priest caused uncertainty in Rutherford’s

approach, enough for the close-in fieldsmen to be desperately diving around for a period in mid-innings. But Priest had to settle for the overnight scalp of Peter Dobbs and the wicket of Kevin Burns, taken with a fine catch from his own bowling. He should have had Richard Hoskin, too, but two chances were missed. Priest deserved revenge on Hoskin, who twice deposited deliveries over the fence at long-off. But he was dropped by Richard Petrie on that boundary, and Priest could not quite cling to a stinging straight drive. The young Canterbury allrounder, Chris Harris, might have happier memories of his second day in first-class cricket. It was Harris, aided by Lee Germon’s slick stumping, who deprived Rutherford of a century. That was indeed a memorable maiden first-class wicket and Harris later bowled another former New Zealand representative, Bruce Blair, for his second. (Final day, back page)