Cricket: Players need four-day discipline

By LINDSAY KNIGHT

Switching from the looser disciplines of one-day cricket to the more restrained demands of four-day matches is looming as one of the main challenges for Auckland and Otago, who started their representative match at North Harbour Stadium yesterday.

So it was perhaps significant that the one player who shone on a day curtailed by the weather was the Auckland left-handed opener Tim McIntosh, who provided the bulk of the runs as his side battled through to 128 for four in their first innings.

While most of his team-mates have been involved in the one-day schedule, McIntosh has continued to have - as a member of the Auckland A side - a hefty diet of the longer version of the game.

And that showed as the tall 23-year-old grafted for 232 minutes and from 179 balls for 78 not out to keep Auckland competitive on a pitch which had enough variation to suggest difficulties in the closing stages of the match.

Otago captain Craig Cumming, gambling on early assistance, put Auckland into bat after winning the toss and, but for McIntosh, who survived two hard chances to point, he would have been justified.

Auckland's international opener Mark Richardson survived two chances before going for just six and the other experienced test player, Matt Horne, also went early - surprised to be beaten off the seam by medium pacer James McMillan.

Rob Nicol, Auckland's prolific scorer in the matches before Christmas, was another to fail, running himself out to a direct hit from Robbie Lawson.

But McIntosh stood firm and finished the day on the verge of his fifth first-class century.

The best of a steady Otago attack which limited Auckland's run rate to just over two an over was former test left-arm swing bowler Shayne O'Connor, who dismissed Richardson and then took a return catch to finish with two cheap wickets from his 16 overs.

Jeff Wilson, who enjoyed so much rugby success and a stack of tries on the adjacent rugby pitch, went wicketless from his 14 overs.

* The first day of the Northern Districts-Wellington match in Taupo was a victim of the weather.