Cricket: Draw for Auckland

Auckland's four-day representative match against Otago yesterday petered out to a tame draw on Eden Park's outer oval, but coach Mark O'Donnell still believes it was a beneficial exercise.

"Our target had been to win this game outright certainly, but we'll take the two points instead [for the first innings lead] and make sure we go into the second part of the competition in good shape," he said.

The match finished with Otago 282-3 in their second innings, with opener Chris Gaffaney grafting his way to 103 to ensure that Auckland, despite the crumbling wicket, never had any chance of forcing the outright victory.

It was, for Auckland, a match of missed opportunities.

O'Donnell said: "Had we got Chris Gaffaney or Craig Cumming late on the third day we might have had a chance and we should have put them away a lot earlier in the first innings and that [208 run] partnership [between Warren McSkimming and Bradley Scott] was what buggered us."

The second phase of the four-day competition, plus the final which Auckland are in a good position to host, clashes with the Black Caps' tests against Australia and Sri Lanka.