Cricket: It's deja vu as trio pluck Auckland from the fire

It was a one-day cricket classic, but that was scant consolation to Otago after they lost to Auckland on the second-to-last ball of the Shell Cup cricket match at Molyneux Park, Alexandra, last night.

Kyle Mills edged Kerry Walmsley to fine leg for two for Auckland to clinch victory by two wickets with a ball to spare after a game that had the crowd of 2000 engrossed throughout.

It is a moot point whether Otago reverted to habit and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, or whether Auckland simply plucked the match out of the fire.

What is beyond dispute is that it was the trio of Tama Canning, Richard Morgan and Mills who gave Auckland an improbable win after they had slumped to 119 for seven in pursuit of Otago's 260 for nine.

John Aiken was the mainstay of the top-order batting and, when he played on to Kerry Walmsley for 60, even the more pragmatic Otago fans sat back and prepared to relish victory.

But lightning strikes twice in these parts. Canning, Morgan and Mills took the game away from Otago at Molyneux Park last summer, and they did exactly the same last night.

Canning played a magnificent innings to score 92, including 11 fours, off 77 balls, his best Shell Cup score by eight.

Morgan made 44 off 49 balls, his best cup score by nine, before he was splendidly caught by Nathan McCullum off Warren McSkimming.

That left Auckland 240 for eight but Mills, who has seen a crisis or two in his time, survived this one admirably as he and Canning steered Auckland to their third consecutive away win.

Eight was needed from the last over and Canning had some fortune from the second ball when Nathan McCullum, possibly unsighted due to the sun, misjudged a lofted off-drive which not only eluded his hands but went to the boundary.

That was just about that, although Walmsley aroused brief hopes by bowling a dot ball to Mills.NZPA

It was a supreme effort by the Auckland lower-order but it was also a mystery why Otago did not call on off-spinner Simon Forde again after his seven overs at the start had yielded the wicket of Llorne Howell and conceded only 18 runs.

- NZPA