Tame draw product of attempted revival effort

Wellington and Canterbury added another exhibit to cricket's hall of curiosities when their Shell Trophy match at the Basin Reserve, halved by rain, died meekly on its final day and with only a spasm or two before life became extinct.

The disolution of the match into a tame draw - Canterbury were 267-5 after failing in their chase for 332 from 96 overs - was made an oddity by the comparative urgency both teams had shown in the morning to contrive more than a first innings result.

Wellington had taken four overs to move their overnight score from 314-4 to 331-4 then, in a unusual display of common purpose or at least of similar disposition, each team forfeited an innings to make Canterbury's run chase a chase for outright victory.

Having taken the step of striking that accord at the cost to Canterbury of first innings points and in the apparent interest of resuscitating a match which had arrested when the second and third days were lost to rain, there followed an innings which more than anything highlighted the team's reluctance to fully press for victory.

Wellington could argue that the pitch which had lain covered between Monday evening and Wednesday morning, never really supported their quest to bowl Canterbury out in a day. Their quicks bowled only 25 of the 98 overs that were finally bowled today and there was little to foster the effort of the spinners - Mark Jefferson and Jeetan Patel - who shoulder most of the bowling.

But it was Canterbury's approach, after being party to the agreement to play for outright points, which was most enigmatic. Their scoring rate before lunch and in the period between lunch and tea rarely suggested that they were chasing victory in earnest.

That period was dominated by the innings of their captain Gary Stead who batted 234 minutes for 88 and who counted his dismissal short of his century one of the blows to Canterbury's chase for victory. Stead had put on 99 runs for the second wicket in a stand with Jarrod Englefield which occupiued 138 minutes and lifted Canterbury after the loss of opener Brad Doddy for nine when they were 26.

But the tempo of Stead and Englefield's scoring was generally to slow to keep Canterbury in any kind of control of the chase for victory. Englefield made 26 and was out when they were 125, having scored only 11 runs from 22 overs after lunch.

Stead followed when they were 145 and Michael Papps to what proved to be the last ball before tea at 164, with Canterbury needing 168 runs to win and with only 31 of their original 96 overs till in hand.

A flurry of scoring by Chris Harris and Aaron Redmond after tea, when Canterbury had six wickets in hand, suggested Canterbury hadn't abandoned hope of forcing a result. They were 224-4 with some 18 overs remaining, Harris had reached his half century from only 70 balls and 108 runs were needed at a rate which was by no means unrealistic.

Then, as suddenly, Canterbury went back into its shell as if, having spied victory over the next hill, it suddenly found the destination unappealing. Harris took 27 balls to score three runs and the match was artificially sustained till 6.01pm when its plug was finally removed. Harris was 69 not out.

Stead said he felt Canterbury were still in with a chance of winning at drinks in the final session when, with 15 overs to be bowled in the last hour, they need 102 to win and had six wickets standing. But when only five runs came from the next four overs they found themselves lost on the road to victory. The match meandered to its close.

Stead was happy to have played for outright points rather than for a simple decision on the first innings, though that was the ultimate result and the forfeiture of Canterbury's first innings gave two points to Wellington. "It was better to try to win than die wondering", he said but, still, Canterbury could not afford to lose the match having made that gesture.

Wellington captain Matthew Bell and coach Vaughn Johnson said it was their joint philosophy this season that Wellington would be prepared to lose first class games in an attempt to win them and the events of the day proved that determination.

But Bell rated himself for under-bowling his quicks, who had at least threatened to take wickets, and by placing too much of a burden on the spinners who sometimes strayed offline. But Johnson said Wellington had no cause to be disappointed at the day's events.

"We're on a bit of a high tonight," he said. "We got two points so we're on the board and if you look back to last season we're improving. Our target is to improve by 10 per cent in every game and if you compare this to the game against New South Wales we did so."'