Grant Donaldson, Matthew Walker and Paul Hitchcock combined to lift Wellington from the brink of defeat to a four-wicket win over Otago in a State Shield match at the Basin Reserve today which burst into life in the last 10 overs

Wellington maintained their lead in the State Shield one-day competition when they eked out a precarious 10-run win over Central Districts in a rain-affected match at Waikanae Park today

Canterbury's 36-run over Wellington in a State Shield match at the Basin Reserve today, which ends Wellington's unbeaten run after seven matches in the competition, may provide a feast for trivia buffs who will pick the carcass of the game in years

Seldom is a player who carries his bat through an innings for a century, in a winning cause, overshadowed in having done so

A carefully-considered decision to change his approach to one-day cricket led to Chris Nevin's match-winning innings of 111 for Wellington who beat Auckland by 19 runs in a State Shield match at the Basin Reserve today

The similarities between Wellington's two State Shield wins at the Basin Reserve this weekend, which gave them two bonus points, 10 points in all, and hurled them to the top of the Shield table, were various and unmistakable

Paul Hitchcock was in a pleasant, almost blissful state of shock tonight as he reviewed the bowling performance - his five wickets for 10 runs - which cast out Central Districts for 58 and gave Wellington a bonus point and a win by 110 runs in a

Craig McMillan made an effortless transition from Test to limited overs cricket, scoring a century from 77 balls as Canterbury beat national one-day champions Central Districts by five wickets in a State Shield match at Pukekura Park today

Leg spinner Aaron Redmond took four wickets, including the pivotal wicket of Ben Smith, to urge Canterbury towards a 102-run win over Central Districts in the State Championship match that ended today at Pukekura Park

Ben Smith reached his second double century in first-class matches for Central Districts against Canterbury at Pukekura Park today, transforming at one stroke this match and his season

Ben Smith's story is an old one - as old as cricket

Canterbury achieved a commanding position, partly with the complicity of Central Districts, before stumps on the first day of their State Championship match at Pukekura Park today - a day of four innings and four seasons

Matthew Walker's emergence as a cornerstone of Wellington's first-class and one-day cricket teams has become more conspicuous over the four days of their drawn State Championship match against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve

The Basin Reserve may become a mecca for ufologists

Richard Scragg's spare innings at the top of the order, and combative performances by Glen Sulzberger and Bevan Griggs, kept Central Districts in the hunt for first innings points after the third day of their State Championship match against

The two men who have captained Wellington in State Championship matches this season, Matthew Bell and Richard Jones, have been named as the captains of the Wellington and Hutt Valley teams which will meet in an annual inter-city one-day match at

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming, who once owned an appendix to cricket's records which delineated his difficulty in converting half centuries into centuries, has been exposed to the century bug this season and found it virulent and infectious

Matthew Bell returned to the Basin Reserve today looking for comfort in familiar surroundings but found in a welcome homecoming less succour and less refuge than he had hoped

Players arriving at the Basin Reserve today for the first day of the State Championship match between Wellington and Central Districts were surprised to find a number of large gaps, like conspicuous missing teeth, in the ground's usually pristine

Bangladesh's preparation for their first Test against New Zealand in Hamilton in nine days suffered a further damaging blow when the third and final day of their warm-up match against a New Zealand District Association XI at Victoria Park, Wanganui