The only other occasion a game was called off in similar circumstances was in the 1998-99 season when a Shell Conference game at Timaru between the Northern Conference and the touring Pakistan A side was abandoned after two of four days, the reason given being the dangerous nature of the pitch.
''First and foremost the priority is player safety, and that was a concerning issue,'' Baxter said.
''Right from the start the occasional ball would rear off a length which was unplayable. While Canterbury batted through the better part of the pitch conditions, one or two of their batsmen were struck.
''Auckland were struggling to get it off the block. The occasional one would come through head high, then would shoot through low. A couple of their players had been struck. This morning a ball reared badly and hit (Auckland batsman) Matt McEwan on the helmet.''
When he was out shortly after in unusual fashion it prompted umpires Ash Mehrotra and John Dempsey to act. They decided to call the game off before anyone was seriously injured.
The scorecard makes unusual reading, not dissimilar to the game in New South Wales in late 2015, when an Australian side declared at 503 for one, and New Zealand bailed out of batting, unhappy with the pitch at Blacktown Oval, and headed north to Brisbane for the first test of that series.
Baxter confirmed it was ''a no brainer'' for the umpires to make the call.
New Zealand Cricket are to launch an investigation into all the circumstances surrounding the abandonment. They were today working out the appropriate points dispersement from the game.
Auckland sit third on the table behind Wellington and Central Districts, who are playing their third day at the Basin Reserve today, while Canterbury are a distant last on 44.
There are two rounds remaining in the shield this season.
