Wellington skipper Richard Jones might make an entry in the Cricket Almanac for the extraordinary field he set with three balls left in the Cricket Max final at Albany.
To stop the Auckland Aces from scoring the 12 runs needed to win yesterday, five of the team were set in an arc 30m behind the bowler's wicket and spread the same distance.
Four guarded the max zone, with only the bowler and the wicketkeeper otherwise occupied.
A hit over the boundary on the full was needed. With miserly Matt Walker bowling to Auckland's tail that was never going to happen.
Wellington won the third successive State Insurance-sponsored Max title by eight runs - totalling 183 to Auckland's 175 - after two outstanding feats, one by each side. Wellington fast-medium bowler James Franklin took 5-23 and Auckland's Andre Adams needed only 14 balls to score 50.
Auckland beat Wellington on the second day of the tournament and went straight to the final. Wellington then beat Otago by 24 runs.
Cricket max: Max-imum tactics by skipper
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