Central demolish Otago to seal semi spot

The State Insurance Central Stags certainly roared at Queen's Park, Invercargill today when they comprehensively defeated the State Otago Volts by seven wickets in their Shell Cup contest.

Winning the toss and putting Otago into bat on a wicket which although covered had seen three days of wild and wet weather, Central Districts never looked back from ball one and the Otago batsmen began a procession back to the pavilion that looked like a parade of lemmings.

At the end of 31.3 overs the Volts had been dismissed for a paltry 67 and truly realised what the value of winning the toss was. But, it is fair to state the the pitch while not at all satisfactory was never venomous and the Otago batsmen never really got into the mode of pushing the ball around and waiting for the bad ones to hit to the boundary.

Only Warren McSkimming batting at number eight looked in any way assured, and even then only to a limited effect. Three Otago batsmen in Martyn Croy, Matthew Horne and Lee Germon were dismissed as a result of vagaries in the pitch but that could not be blamed for a total of 67 - the fourth lowest one-day total in New Zealand cricket history.

The task of knocking off the 68 runs required was not a difficult chore for the Stags who found the pitch had lost most of its sting and they gleefully the victory target in 15.4 overs.

It was not a game that will go down in the annals of one-day cricket memorables but it has given Central Districts a place in the semi-finals of the Shell Cup and Otago yet another exit to near the bottom of the class.