Cricket: Wretched Auckland hunting for answers

Auckland's dismal batting record is copping much of the blame as they trail a distant last in the Plunket Shield. Photo / Getty Images

First the good news: Auckland have had a champion limited-overs cricket season.

They won both the HRV Cup T20 competition to be New Zealand's representative in the Champions League this year, and the national one-day title.

So what's up with their first-class game?

With four rounds left in the Plunket Shield, Auckland are a distant last, with just two points out of a possible 48. Wellington sit fifth on 15.

The shield competition was split in two this summer. The first three rounds were played in November before the T20. The last seven began in mid-February. Four rounds remain.

Auckland accrued their two points from taking a first-innings lead against Otago in round two.

Before the break, they drew with Canterbury, lost outright to Otago and lost to Central Districts, both by six wickets.

Since resuming, they have lost by five, nine and 10 wickets respectively to Wellington, Northern Districts and Otago.

The main issue has been the batting. Auckland's bowling has been serviceable, although their leading wicket takers - Andre Adams, with 16, and Michael Bates, with 11 - are some way off the pace overall.

But they simply haven't made enough runs.

Take out Anaru Kitchen's 462 runs at 46.2 and Andrew de Boorder with 444 at 37 and it makes dismal reading.

The nadir arrived at Dunedin's University Oval last Tuesday.

Responding to Otago's 327, Auckland were rolled for just 46, their second-lowest first-class total, behind the 13 back in 1877-78 against Canterbury at Auckland Domain. That was the year test cricket began.

No one made double figures; extras top-scored with nine; the last seven wickets fell for 14.

"It was very strange," captain Gareth Hopkins said. "It was one of those innings where everything that could go wrong did.

"It was good bowling. The deck was fine, with a little bit of sideways movement. But everything they seemed to do turned to gold."

Out of such situations, there is usually some darkly grim humour about. Hopkins was hard-pressed to find any out of this mess.

It brought to a head a wretched collective batting performance in the first-class summer.

"What happened the other day is we got to a point where it can't get any worse. We have bottomed out.

"So it's back to basics, to try and start getting some belief back."

Hopkins praised Kitchen for his "superb" 89 not out in the second innings in Dunedin, but much more is needed.

Last season, Richard Jones hit 953 runs, second on aggregates to Luke Woodcock, in a memorable swansong to a lengthy career.

"We miss that. Someone has got to step up and get his runs.

"It's time for guys like Anaru, Colin de Grandhomme and Jeet Raval to start saying 'I'm not a rookie any more and I want to be the next Richard Jones'."

Strange as it sounded, Auckland were not entirely out of the hunt when the shield resumed last month. There were then 56 points on offer; they trailed leaders CD by 22 points.

Now avoiding the wooden spoon will be a decent achievement. So has there been a limited-overs hangover? Hopkins hopes not but can't rule it out. "I'd like to think there wasn't. It was something we were aware of, we addressed it and said it's not going to happen.

"The guys were pretty proud of the T20 and 50-over campaigns. That was a superb effort to win both.

"It's frustrating when you're losing and not going well. Everyone is desperate to be the person who changes it around."

That process starts on Monday when Auckland play ND at Hamilton's Seddon Park.

Footnote: Auckland were second-last a season ago, but won the shield in 2008-09. That summer, Reece Young, with 557 runs, was Auckland's leading batsman, and he was 10th highest run-getter overall.

Tarun Nethula (28 wickets), Daryl Tuffey (27) and Lance Shaw (26) were the three leading wicket-takers, aided by Andy McKay's 23 and de Grandhomme's 21.