Cricket: Oram deals to Auckland

By GRAHAM REDDAWAY AND NZPA

A brilliant century by Jacob Oram and a six wicket bag for Michael Mason helped Central Districts deal a heavy blow to Auckland's hopes of making the semi-finals of the domestic one-day competition.

Central scored 245 for seven from their 50 overs and Auckland replied with 236 in 49.3 overs.

Central were in trouble at three down for 14 when Oram joined Mathew Sinclair at the wicket.

Shortly after, on the last ball of the sixth over and before he had even score, he was dropped in the gully by Aaron Barnes.

He was unfazed as he and Sinclair resurrected the innings with a record fourth-wicket ODI partnership for the province, of 132, beating the previous record he shared with current coach, Mark Greatbatch, of 117 set in the 1997-98 season.

Sinclair was bowled by Paul Hitchcock for 54 at 146.

Helped by Glen Sulzberger, Oram prospered to record his second domestic one-day century before he was the sixth wicket to fall at 228 By that time he had 125 to his name.

Any hopes Auckland had of mounting a competitive chase disappeared when the Central fast bowler Mason dismissed Tim McIntosh for five.

Lance Hamilton took Llorne Howell's wicket for 16 and Auckland suddenly crashed.

Mason caught Rob Nicol in front without scoring, and the next ball Aaron Barnes was caught at second slip by Blair Furlong.

Tama Canning staved off the hat-trick, but had scored only two when Mason struck again with a catch going to wicketkeeper Sinclair.

The Auckland innings was in tatters at 37 for five.

Throughout this debacle Matt Horne (89) stood firm. He found a partner in Kyle Mills and the pair added 91 before Mills (32) was needlessly run out when he seemed unbalanced and did not answer Horne's call.

Paul Hitchcock (23), Reece Young (21 not out) and Kerry Walmsley with a flurry at the end for 26 all added to the excitement, but Auckland were left 10 short.

Mason took six for 26, easily surpassing his previous best of four for 16, but in the contest for man-of-the-match, that accolade probably belonged to Oram.

Central's victory has them lying second on the ladder to Canterbury and in with a strong chance of moving through to the semifinal stage.

* Wairarapa overcame a spirited Nelson run chase to secure an exciting first innings win in their zone two Hawke Cup elimination match at Trafalgar Park yesterday.

Chasing a mammoth 469 runs for first innings points, Nelson fell just 12 runs short when their final wicket fell with still two overs remaining.

Nelson's run chase was anchored by a remarkable 295-run fourth wicket partnership between Duncan Cederman (219) and Bryan Krammer (112) as both posted their highest representative scores.

* Zimbabwe will get their best chance yet to topple world champions Australia in the tri-nations series when the two teams meet at the Adelaide Oval today.

The host-nation will rest opening maestro Adam Gilchrist from the starting line up and elevate a desperately out-of-form Damien Martyn to the key batting position.

Gilchrist's wicketkeeping role will also be taken by New South Wales state custodian Brad Haddin.

Martyn has spent very little time at the crease in the one-day series so far, having made just 69 runs in five innings with a top score of 47 not out against Zimbabwe.

The Australian batting line-up will be further unsettled with the expected reshuffle up the order of both Michael Bevan and Michael Clarke to fill the No 4 and 5 berths.

Captain Ricky Ponting will remain at No 3.

Despite the changes, Zimbabwe captain Heath Streak was remaining realistic.

"Teams like Australia have so many people sitting on the sideline, quality players chomping at the bit to come in and who would be playing international cricket in most other countries," Streak said

"We can't just rest on our laurels and think we've had a couple of reasonable games so we're just going to rock up and be competitive against the world champs.

"It's always nice not to bowl to the likes of Gilly [Gilchrist] ... but there's plenty of other guys batting well."

Ponting said he was promoting Martyn to opener to give him the chance to build a big innings.

"He's got a great record opening the batting for Australia," Ponting said. "He needs a little bit of time in the middle, so he's going to get his chance tomorrow.

"It [opening] just gives you a bit more of an opportunity, a bit more of a chance I think, to get in and get settled."

Ponting said he had tossed up between Martyn and Michael Clarke to replace Gilchrist at the top.