Latham, Petrie Canty stars

Press, 28 December 1989, Page 28

Latham, Petrie Canty stars

PA Oamaru AN ASSERTIVE innings by Rod Latham and tightfisted bowling by Richard Petrie were key ingredients in Canterbury’s handsome 91-run win over Otago in the Shell Cup cricket match at Centennial Park yesterday. Canterbury made a respectable but far from imposing 194 for nine after it had been sent into bat, but then dismissed Otago in just 40.5 overs for a miserly 103. It was a day of little cheer for Otago, which caught splendidly in the field, but then lost wickets rapidly with a succession of poor shots.

Canterbury was given a sound start by David Boyle, Blair Hartland and Peter Kennedy, and Latham , capitalised with a quickfire 44 off 35 balls (three fours and an on-driven six off Vaughn Johnson) before Allan Bligh leapt high on the boundary at square leg to take a perfectly-timed catch. That was the start of a slide in which Canterbury lost four wickets in consecutive overs, but Chris Harris — in his Shell Cup debut — batted in tune with the situation and added an unbeaten 25 with Stu Roberts for the last wicket.

Harris, a stylish left-hander, scored an unbeaten 28 off only 25 balls in an invaluable innings which rescued Canterbury from mediocrity. Harris swung Neil Mallender to long-on for four, Johnson over mid-wicket for six, and conveyed an air of assurance and ease. His late flurry made Otago’s

task that much harder, and it became even more difficult when Kevin Burns played on to the last ball of Roberts’ first over. Ken Rutherford aroused brief hope by taking boundaries off three consecutive balls from Roberts — a scoop over square leg, a turn off his hips, and a controlled edge to third man. But just when it seemed Rutherford was in the mood to dominate the bowlers and the match, he had a ball from Chris Flanagan which held up on him and Mark Priest took the easy catch at mid-wicket.

Amazingly, there was only one other boundary in the entire Otago innings when Kassem Ibadulla square drove Flanagan. Ibadulla, .who suffered from leg cramps and needed Bruce Blair as a runner in the later stages of his innings, was fifth out when he drove at Priest and Harris held the skier at deep cover.

Ibadulla had batted 100 minutes and faced 78 balls for his 25, but no Otago batsman was able to take the initiative against tight bowling and enthusiastic fielding. Blair, on his thirty-second birthday, claimed the valuable wickets of Latham and Kennedy with the ball but failed in his specialist role, making only one before he edged Roberts to Paul McEwan at slip. But he might have set one record by acting as a runner twice in the same innings. Stephen Boock strained a calf muscle when bowling and Blair

acted as his runner at the fall of the ninth wicket.

It was a brief excursion, before Blair was caught out of his ground attempting a short single on Boock’s behalf. It seemed to sum up Otago’s day in a match which slipped from its reach after it appeared to be soundly placed. CANTERBURY D. Boyle std Robinson b Boock . . 23 B. Hartland c Blair b Hills 26 P. Kennedy c Johnson b Blair. . . 41 P. McEwan c Hills b Johnson ... 1 R. Latham c Bligh b Blair 44 C. Flannagan lbw b Rutherford . . 8 M. Priest b Rutherford 6 R. Petrie run out 1 C. Harris not out 28 L. Germon c Hoskin b Rutherford 2 S. Roberts not out 4 Extras (bl, IbG, w2) 10 Total (for 9 wkts) 194 Fall: 37, 73, 74, 131, 137, 151, 156, 157, 169. Bowling: N. Mallender 7.1, 0, 27, 0; P. Hills 9,0, 30, 1; S. Boock 10, 2, 22, 1; K. Rutherford 10, 0, 26, 3; W. Johnson 6.5, O, 45, 1 (w2); B. Blair 7,0, 36, 2. OTAGO K. Burns b. Roberts 0 K. Ibadulla c Harris b Priest. ... 25 K. Rutherford c Priest b Flannagan. 17 B. Blair c McEwan b Roberts ... 0 R. Hoskin b Petrie 19 A. Bligh c Germon b Petrie .... 1 P. Hills c Kennedy b Priest 1 N. Mallender c Petrie b Harris . . 5 S. Robinson not out 16 V. Johnson c Latham b Harris. . . 7 S. Boock run out 1 Extras (lbs, w4, nb2) 11 Total 103 Fall: 0, 25, 28, 68, 70, 71, 73, 79, 98. Bowling: S. Roberts, 6,1, 25, 2 (nb2); C. Flannagan 9.5, 1, 23, 1 (w4); M. Priest 10, 3, 21, 2; R. Petrie 10, 2, 11, 2; C. Harris 5,0, 18, 2. Result: Canterbury won by 91 runs. Men of the match: Rod Latham and Richard Petrie (Canterbury). Fieldsman of the match: Ken Rutherford (Otago). Umpires: S. Dunne and D. McKechnie.