Cricket: Bell battles injury in gritty innings

Wellington opening batsman Matthew Bell was hampered by heavy bruising to his right thumb during his gutsy innings of 77 in a second round Shell Trophy cricket match against Northern Districts at the Basin Reserve today.

The former New Zealand opening batsman suffered the injury when struck by a ball from opening bowler Daryl Tuffey soon after lunch, and was later relieved learn it was not fractured. The same thumb was broken four or five years ago.

Bell was looking to protect the thumb from further injury, which will not be easy as he will also keep wickets with captain Chris Nevin only able to bat in this game following a groin injury.

After continuing to put the thumb in ice and taping it Bell was optimistic he would be able to carry out all his duties for the remaining three days of this match.

Wellington reached 199 for five in their first innings after losing the toss and being asked to bat. Bad light ended play early at 5.15pm.

Bell provided the innings backbone until he was the third out at 114, and later Tim Boyer with 38 and Richard Petrie, 29, wrested the initiative back from the Northern bowlers with an unbroken sixth wicket partnership of 61.

Bell said he had been disappointed to be trapped leg before by a ball from Alex Tait which cut back and kept low.

By then he had batted through a difficult period after being hit on the thumb when on 54.

The knock affected his grip on the bat and he felt light-headed. Just when he had fought his way through it he was out. He batted for 186 minutes, and hit 11 boundaries.

"I batted positively from the start. It was the best I've felt for a long time."

He and Grant Donaldson provided Wellington with a solid first wicket stand of 73 on a slow pitch, which was not capitalised upon. One run later Donaldson was bowled by left-arm spinner Bruce Martin and new batsman Selywn Blackmore was caught first ball by Martin at point.

Blackmore was back in the side for the first time for several seasons in place of the injured Jason Wells. Normally Blackmore would have quietly played himself in but from the first ball he tried to hit a ball from Tuffey through point, and was caught just above the turf.

With Boyer and Petrie batting with growing confidence Wellington were starting to eye a first innings total approaching 300.

- NZPA