Cricket: Hitchcock delivers timely boost with maiden century

With Auckland desperate for a morale-booster, Paul Hitchcock chose an ideal time to hit his maiden one-day century at Eden Park yesterday.

Medium pacer Hitchcock, who played 13 ODIs for New Zealand between 2002 and 2004, has a previous highest one-day score of 43 in 71 one-dayers.

But, relishing a role higher in the order, he slammed 108 at exactly run-a-ball rate to ensure Auckland were ahead of the required rate chasing Northern Districts' 267 for nine when the rain came.

Enter Messrs Duckworth and Lewis with their calculators and Auckland, winless so far in the State Shield, had their second win in their last 14 one-day games by 13 runs.

Hitchcock batted with a flourish, clubbing a couple of sixes and 15 fours in an enterprising innings.

He shared a 122-run opening stand with his captain Richard Jones, then put on a further 59 with New Zealand under-19 representative Martin Guptill before unluckily being run out at the non-strikers end. A Guptill drive flicked off spinner Bruce Martin's fingers on to the stumps leaving Hitchcock stranded.

When the players trooped off in the rain, after 37.4 overs, Auckland's 188 for two was 11 runs more than they needed to get the points.

Northern's innings, having been sent in, was a mixture. They lost three wickets in quick order to be 95 for four, Hamish Marshall a brisk 39 before his twin brother James and Mark Orchard put a bit of starch into the innings.

There were useful late hands from Joe Yovich and Peter McGlashan, but James Marshall was the key.

He has had a good one-day campaign so far and bagged an impressive 87 in 102 balls yesterday, including 42 singles, before being run out off the final ball of the innings.

Spinner Mayu Pasupati was the pick of the Auckland attack, putting the brakes on Northern's innings in the most efficient manner, grabbing three of his four wickets in the space of 15 balls.

Otago v Wellington

Otago cricketer Warren McSkimming discovered a natural pick-me-up for the flu with a freakishly good performance against Wellington.

McSkimming arrived at Carisbrook in Dunedin feeling under the weather after battling an illness for several days.

Hours later he could have leapt through hoops after a devastating spell of seam bowling saw him take outstanding figures of five for nine from 7.3 overs to pave the way for an easy win for Otago.

Wellington, who began the game as the competition leaders, perished for a meagre 81, which Otago duly knocked off for the loss of three wickets in just 19.3 overs.

For good measure, Otago picked up a bonus point as well as the victory to propel themselves above Wellington atop the State Shield leaderboard.

For provincial workhorse McSkimming, the day's events were almost surreal in his 54th provincial one-day game as he found some encouragement both off the track and in the air.

"I haven't been well for a few days and I felt lethargic this morning and maybe that helped me relax a bit," McSkimming, 26, said after completing one of the most destructive as well as parsimonious spells in domestic one-day history.

He made an immediate impact when he had former international Chris Nevin caught behind off the first ball of the match and everything fell into place after that.

"That perked me up and carried me through for the rest of my overs.

"It was just a lucky day for me, I suppose. Everything went right for me. I'm rapt.

"The wicket was doing a bit early on and it was a bit slow, but I managed to put the ball in the right place and the boys managed to help me out by holding their catches."

Accuracy was McSkimming's friend yesterday as he forced the Wellington batsmen to play at the ball, while the remainder of the attack, with the exception of Gareth Shaw, kept things tight at the other end.

Wellington quickly slumped to 36 for four and never recovered as McSkimming added Neal Parlane; Luke Woodcock, who topscored with 20; Jeetan Patel and Scott Rasmussen to his list of cheap casualties.

After losing the early wicket of Chris Gaffaney for six, Otago progressed quickly enough thanks to 34 from 30 balls by opener Aaron Redmond before Neil Broom chipped in with an unbeaten 18 to help them canter home.

But all the attention afterwards settled on McSkimming, who masterminded the downfall of Wellington for the third-equal lowest score in their one-day history.

CD v Canterbury

Central Districts broke their duck with an emphatic nine-wicket win over Canterbury in Christchurch.

After three successive losses, they outplayed the home side in all departments at Hagley Oval.

The decisive nature of the win was reflected in the fact that having dismissed Canterbury for a paltry 109, Central Districts sped past the victory target in just 24.2 overs to pick up a bonus point as well.

Fielding first in cloudy, humid conditions, Central Districts proceeded to rip through a tentative Canterbury batting line-up, which never recovered after limping to 32 for four.

Lance Hamilton and Ewen Thompson returned identical figures of four for 22 from 10 overs as they met minimal resistance.

Only former international Chris Harris, who topscored with 31, stuck around for any length of time.

By the time Canterbury were dismissed the skies had cleared, making batting a much easier proposition when Central Districts began their response.

The early loss of international Jamie How for two could have been unsettling but Central Districts had nothing to worry about as Ross Taylor and Geoff Barnett dominated proceedings after that.

They shared an unbroken stand of 101 for the second wicket, with Taylor ending the game unbeaten on 55 from 73 balls while Barnett made 52 not out off 64 balls.

STATE SHIELD

Points after four rounds: Otago 15, Wellington 12, Canterbury 9, Central Districts 7, Northern Districts 5, Auckland 4.

Round five: Friday: Central Districts v Auckland, Nelson; Saturday: Canterbury v Otago, Christchurch; Wellington v Northern Districts, Wellington.

- additional reporting NZPA