Cricket: Last-over six wins Shell Cup match for Auckland

Tama Canning slammed the third-to-last ball of the match over the long-on boundary to take Auckland to an exhilarating four-wicket victory over Canterbury in their Shell Cup cricket match in Christchurch yesterday.

The 23-year-old Australian-born allrounder's feat was all the more memorable because he achieved it at the expense of Geoff Allott, who rates among the finest of all international one-day bowlers.

When Allott began the last over, Auckland were 223 for six in pursuit of Canterbury's total of 228.

Canning scrambled a single from the first ball, Andre Adams played and missed, then scored one run to long off.

With four runs needed from three deliveries, the match was finely balanced. But the pressure of the situation did not intimidate Canning, who confidently stepped into his lofted on-drive.

That one action would have clinched any man-of-the-match award for Canning, who earlier in the day had recorded his best one-day bowling figures of four for 30 to severely damage Canterbury's innings.

Canning's big hitting embellished the fine efforts of Auckland's top three batsmen, Aaron Barnes, Tim McIntosh, and Lou Vincent, who all contributed half-centuries to maintain a far more consistent scoring rate than Canterbury's boom-and-bust progress.

- NZPA