Cricket: Capital's weather help for Central

Unsettled weather has upset Wellington's bid to win their third-round Shell Trophy cricket match against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve. And the forecast for the final day today is much the same.

Only 33.1 overs were possible yesterday, and 42.5 overs the day before as drizzle repeatedly upset attempts to play.

With a fine day, Wellington would be favoured to bowl out Central a second time and win outright to possibly go to the top of the points table.

Wellington secured first innings points in their opening game against Canterbury, and beat Otago outright in Dunedin last week.

Central were 47 for two in their second innings yesterday after Wellington declared at 369 for seven - a lead of 258.

"It's so frustrating," Wellington coach Vaughn Johnston said.

"All you can do is sit around, and hope for an improvement in the weather."

"Out of seven days in the trophy at the Basin this season, four have been rain-affected when we've been in very strong positions."

Wellington added a further 72 runs yesterday before the declaration, 30 of them to Chris Nevin, who was 82 not out from 100 balls.

Nevin's innings was a continuation of his explosive run-making since his return from playing with the New Zealand one-day side in South Africa.

He had scores of 55 and 50 in one-dayers at the WestpacTrust Stadium against New South Wales and Canterbury, which should have helped him retain his place for the three limited-over games against Zimbabwe next month.

Central's second innings started disastrously when first innings destroyer James Franklin had David Kelly and Joseph Hill both leg before in his first over.

But Ben Smith and Mark Douglas batted through without further loss until rain and poor light ended play at 4.45 pm.

- NZPA