Cricket: Auckland in with a show

By Chris Rattue

MASTERTON - It's game on again after Central District played a strange part in helping Auckland to revive their hopes on the second day of the Shell Trophy cricket match in Masterton yesterday.

Under baking heat, and on the controversial Queen Elizabeth Park pitch, Auckland could take first-innings points in what has become a battle of attrition.

Central, who started the day in the box seat at 264 for three wickets, ended up declaring at 414.

And Auckland's international openers, Blair Pocock and Bryan Young, had cracked the ton before the close of play, although Pocock was out in the second-to-last over. Auckland finished on 116 for one.

Just how and why Central should end up on 414 is as much a mystery as whether their key batsman of the innings, Mathew Sinclair, is a hero or villain. Without him, the home side might not have marched on to such a big score. But his unbeaten 166 became a painfully grinding affair, taking nine-and-a-half hours.

Sinclair was to blinkered, dogged batting determination what Sir Edmund Hillary was to mountain climbing. If the 23-year-old right-hander had been left there any longer, Masterton might have wondered if it had a land occupation on its hands.

Even the Central dressing room asked him to kick it along a bit, to no avail, and coach Dipak Patel admitted they wanted "a lot more" by the time they decided a declaration was necessary.

Sinclair, though, mastered the rotten pitch by his own means, waiting oh so patiently for the bad ball, although others, like the massive Jacob Oram, were probably sacrificed in the process as they went searching for runs that were not really there.

There should be some sort of inquiry into this pitch. It is surrounded by stones about the size of the old one cent piece, and is the type of dusty dirt that belongs in the back of an excavation lorry.

Auckland's bowling and fielding has not been quite at the level it should, although they were completely committed in the field for a day-and-a-half under the sweltering sun.

They were lucky that Mark Haslam won a battle with Mark Douglas. Chunky left-hander Douglas, looking to blast Central into a much stronger position, hit one six over square-leg, but then sent the ball straight down Richard King's throat when on 31. King had moved of his own accord to the spot to get under the shade of a tree near the boundary.

Bryan Young has already played probably the innings of the match and he holds the key to an Auckland line-up hit by a back injury to Kyle Mills, who will not bowl again but may bat.