Cricket: Taylor puts Central Districts into semis

Rising star Ross Taylor sent a timely message to the New Zealand selectors last night after guiding his Central Districts side to a State Shield semifinal showdown against Otago.

One of the country's most promising batsmen, Taylor played a defining hand against Wellington in the last round of pool play, posting 121 off 131 balls as Central eclipsed their target of 226 with four overs to spare.

The result means Central will now progress into next Wednesday's semifinal against Otago, who clung on to the final qualifying position despite losing to Northern Districts by 128 runs in Dunedin yesterday.

The winner of the Otago-Central Districts semi will then square off in Sunday week's grand-final against Canterbury, who finished top of the round-robin competition after brushing aside Auckland yesterday by five wickets.

However, it was Taylor who provided the competition's headline act - his composed century (off 120 balls) ensuring that Central would persevere in what was effectively a winner-take-all contest at Palmerston North.

Having arrived at the wicket after the early loss of Geoff Barnett, Taylor quickly struck up a compelling partnership with his skipper Jamie How. The pair added 170 for the second wicket to put the result beyond doubt.

Taylor made a brisk start, raising his 50 off 54 balls, but was content to pace himself throughout the innings, taking a further 66 balls to bring up his century and eventually falling just three runs short of the total.

How was more cautious over his 117-ball 68, but by the time he departed off the bowling of Notts' paceman Charlie Shreck, Central were 187 for two and the result was almost in the bag.

Earlier, Stephen Fleming, with 57 off 72 balls, and Michael Parlane (64 off 95) were the mainstays of Wellington's batting effort.

Otago will join Central in next week's play-off but they would have taken little comfort from yesterday's outing against Northern, after they initially lost Aaron Redmond to injury, then conceded 315 runs in the field, and ultimately fell over in reply for 187.

Northern had earlier enjoyed one of their best one-day batting performances, courtesy of B. J. Watling (116 off 138 balls), Daniel Vettori (76 off 92), and a late flurry from Peter McGlashan and Bruce Martin. As for Auckland, they ended their one-day campaign as they did last season, with just a solitary win following yesterday's slow death at Hagley Oval, where they mustered 260 for six batting first.

Lou Vincent (88 off 110 balls), Richard Jones (55 off 78), Scott Styris (40 off 42) and Rob Nicol (38 not out off 35) gave Auckland one of their more respectable totals of the season, although there was always a concern that the runs were scored a shade too slowly.

In reply, Canterbury were well served by Craig McMillan's run-a-ball 75 and a more sedate 53 from Nathan Astle (74 balls), and were able to romp home in relative comfort following some late fireworks from Chris Cairns (46 off 35).