Cricket: Pitch winner in State Shield semifinal

By RICHARD BOOCK

New Zealand's premier one-day domestic competition was transformed into another bowlers' benefit yesterday, as Central Districts beat Auckland to progress to the final.

Having just recovered from the green-tops that plagued last summer's series against India, cricket fans have been forced to endure similar batting catastrophes this season, and the trend continued yesterday at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.

Bowled out for 107, a ball short of the revised 40 overs, Auckland could not inflict enough early damage to the Central batting line-up, which eventually persevered with three wickets and 19.5 overs remaining.

The result means Central will now travel to Christchurch to play Canterbury in Friday's State Shield final at Jade Stadium.

Possibly the bigger issue was the scheduling of the semifinal at New Plymouth rather than Napier, which is renowned for the stability of its weather at this time of year and has a better-resourced playing arena.

At a time when the Australian and Indian teams have been playing on shirt-front pitches across the Tasman, the Pukekura Park surface turned out to be a pace bowlers' paradise in the first two hours, before drying out to verge on the dangerous.

Central captain Jacob Oram was struck on the hand by a rearing Kerry Walmsley delivery that appeared to go through the top, and several other batsmen were taken out of their comfort zone by the variable bounce.

A mitigating factor was undoubtedly the deluge that struck New Plymouth on Monday morning, but the venue seemed under-resourced for such an important fixture, as shown by the lack of a "super-sopper".

Sky Television cricket producer Martin Crowe went to the extent of hiring a helicopter to accelerate the drying process, and told viewers later that he was surprised at the lack of visible action when he arrived at the ground.

Crowe's actions virtually rescued the game from a 30-over slog or, worse still, the prospect of a second consecutive washout and automatic qualification for Central.

However, the resulting surface for the crucial playoff match still heavily favoured the team bowling first, something that was not lost on Oram when he won the toss and asked Auckland to bat.

Last season's runners-up were immediately in trouble, at a time when there was lots of humidity and plenty of encouragement for the swing bowlers.

In-form paceman Michael Mason sent back Matt Horne from the third ball of the game and the destruction continued unabated for the next 20 overs, Auckland slumping to 15 for three, 41 for five and 76 for seven.

But as well as Central bowled, the Auckland batsmen deserved to shoulder much of the blame, as Horne, Llorne Howell, Aaron Barnes and Kyle Mills all fell to poor shots, and four others perished to run-outs.

The best of these was a stunning piece of work from Oram that led to the demise of Tama Canning, although Jamie How's quick work to undo Andre Adams was also worthy of mention.

Central might have even received a fright in reply, were it not for a belligerent half-century from young right-hander Ross Taylor, who got off the mark by lofting Walmsley for a straight six.

Taylor, playing in his first season of top cricket, struck five fours and three sixes as he sped to 56 off 45 balls, demonstrating why New Zealand coach John Bracewell was keen for him to be in the North Island side.

The North Island will play the South in a state of origin-type one-dayer at Jade Stadium on Sunday, after which the New Zealand squad to play South Africa will be named.