Cricket: Woeful Otago equal their lowest score

Otago's cricketers suffered a very public embarrassment as they helped to write one of the more remarkable New Zealand sports stories in Invercargill yesterday.

The Central Districts players had to make an early morning dash from Palmerston North after being stranded at a fog-bound Wellington Airport.

They went straight from the airport to the ground, with no time for a team talk, and barely enough time to adjust the thigh pad before strolling out to face the Otago pacemen.

What followed was a record score at Queens Park in a limited-overs match, Central's 264 for five surpassing Canterbury's 258 against Otago four seasons ago.

The visitors then destroyed Otago with the ball, journeyman left-armer Lance Hamilton grabbing his first five-wicket bag - five for 19 off 10 overs - as the hosts were dismissed for 64 to lose by 200 runs.

It equalled their lowest-ever score, against Wellington at Molyneux Park a decade ago.

At one stage Otago were 23 for seven, after four consecutive batsmen made a short round trip from the dressing room without scoring.

There were also some remarkable, albeit more noteworthy feats from the Central batsmen. Craig Spearman plundered 94, which included eight boundaries, Jarrod Englefield hit 60 off 74 balls, and captain Glen Sulzberger scored 40 from just 18 balls.

Englefield smashed a lofted six which bounced on and over the Southland Cricket Association pavilion before ending up in the car park.

Central scored 92 off the last 10 overs.

Otago coach Glenn Turner noted that his team had scored one of their highest scores for a couple of seasons against the same team in an earlier round. That was little consolation for the small crowd which showed up, or an Otago team who had been chasing a place in the semifinals.

"We bowled ordinarily, we fielded poorly and we batted even worse," Turner said.

The victory ensured Central of a place in the final.

* Auckland beat Canterbury by eight runs in Christchurch yesterday, their first shield victory in nine attempts this season.

Canterbury made 200 for nine in pursuit of Auckland's 208 for eight, thanks chiefly to an uncharacteristically watchful innings of 93 by New Zealand opener Nathan Astle.

For Auckland, Rob Nicol (53) and Tama Canning (56) played grafting innings.

- NZPA