Wellington out-bat and out-bowl Central to gain big early advantage

James Franklin, with the exuberance of youth, and Roger Twose, with impatience which may be the by-product of experience, respectively bowled and batted Wellington to a first innings lead over Central Districts on the first day of their Shell Trophy match at the Basin Reserve today.

Franklin took 5-39 from 20 overs, the best return of his formative Trophy career, as Wellington impressed Central into batting, then rolled them for 111. And Twose, seemingly reluctant to dally at the crease - batting like a man with a pressing appointment - took 57 from 46 balls as it reached 153-3 by stumps in reply.

Their joint efforts and the patient unbeaten innings of Wellington captain Matthew Bell, who was 71 at stumps, left Wellington in firm, satisfied control of the match with three full days still yawning before them.

But the efforts of the batsmen, who enforced Wellington's superiority this afternoon, can be considered secondary to those of Franklin and his fellow bowlers who so forcefully supported Bell's decision to field on winning the toss.

Offered the new ball in the absence of Carl Bulfin and Mark Gillespie, the spearheads of Wellington's attack who are absent through injury, Franklin nipped the top from Central's order then returned after lunch to shiver their innings totally.

He took 2-22 in his first spell of eight overs, claiming his and Central's first wicket with the first ball of the third over, bowled Ben Smith to leave Central 12-2 and bowed briefly out of the attack when they were three wickets down after 15 overs.

He strongly embellished that first spell with another prior to lunch and a third in the afternoon session that returned 3-8 from seven overs. Two of his victims - Smith and Martin Sigley - were bowled and three more fell lbw as he first disconcerted batsmen with bounce and pace then worked them out with fuller and seaming deliveries.

Sigley's dismissal was a classic case in point: he was struck on the helmet ducking a sharply rising ball in the 41st over then bowled leg stump next ball as he hovered, hesitantly between the front and back foot.

Franklin found some movement in the air, more off the pitch and kept an intense pressure on the batsmen with his control of bounce and line from his left-armer's point of release close to the wicket. No-one played him with authority and there has hardly been a better recent example from a young Wellington bowler of the art of exploiting favourable conditions, by craft rather than passion.

Iain O'Brien chimed in, as Franklin's opening partner, with the early wicket of Mark Douglas and added the last wicket of the innings, which ended in the 53rd over. He finished with 2-14 from 10.3 overs and Matthew Walker, with subtler but demanding medium pace, with 2-10 from 11 overs.

David Kelly, opening with Hill, was a bewildered spectator as three Central wickets fell for 23 runs in the first 10 overs, with each batsman making only six. He was still four not out when the third wicket fell and had batted watchfully for 93 minutes for 11 runs when he was out in the 24th over when Central was 56-4.

Jamie How, the young Manawatu batsman making his debut, added 33 with Kelly in 57 minuts for the fourth wicket and 20 with Jacob Oram for the fifth before becoming the sixth man out for 28 when Central was 80. He was Franklin's third victim, fallen after defying the Wellington bowlers for 106 minutes.

Greg Todd, 17, was similarly a close witness to the dismisssals of How, Sigley, Hamish Morgan, Ewan Thompson and Michael Mason, stranded on 16 not out after batting through the last hour of the innings.

His 16, How's 28, Kelly's 11, Thompson's 10 were faintly luminous points in a lustreless innings. Four batsmen were out for six and Wellington's 21 extras were the innings' second highest score.

Wellington's position at stumps might have been more formidable but for the almost extravagant waste of the wickets of Richard Jones and Jason Wells as they mounted their reply. Jones was out for 9 in the 12th over when Wellington was 26, pulling an undistinguished delivery from Oram to square leg. And Wells simply directed another short ball from Oram to Mark Douglas at second slip when he had spent 32 minutes making one run. Wellington was 44 for two.

Twose was not prepared to brook such timidity. He strode to the wicket with the demeanour of a man impatient with proceedings and after watching long enough to be certain the wicket held terrors only for the infirm he set about Central's bowling with dismissive authority.

He flicked a six, almost disdainfully, over square leg from Oram, threw another over long-on then dismissed nine deliveries to the boundary, peremptorily and with almost callous disapproval that they had been served him in the first place.

He played at times from his crease, fetching half volleys to the point and cover boundaries, then stepped emphtically down the wicket and drove straight, thunderously and with the full face of the bat.

Twose surpasseed in eight overs, after arriving at the crease in the 20th over, the score Bell had dallied over for 28 overs. He reached his half century in 33 minutes from as many balls and departed 13 balls later, when his captain was yet only 43.

Bell, whose innings mixed stout defence with a series of almost ballistic pulls through square leg, went on to his own half century in 140 minutes and had batted more than three hours when stumps were drawn minutes after 6pm.

Wellington resume tomorrow with Bell not out 71, Selwyn Blackmore 13 not out, on a wicket becoming hard and true and with a large amount of batting still to come.