Auckland pace themselves off the bottom of the table

Auckland lifted themselves off the bottom of the State Shield ladder after a solid three-wicket win over Canterbury on the much-maligned Boxing Day portable pitch at Eden Park in the third round of the Shield.

Aaron Barnes (56) and Llorne Howell (51) led the Auckland assault on Canterbury's 197 for eight, a total that had looked doubtful until a late-innings flurry and was helped by the contribution of 14 wides by the Auckland bowlers.

Barnes' effort was particularly valuable, arriving as he did when the Auckland innings had started to get the shudders. With Craig Pryor (21 not out), he contributed to an 85-run partnership that was only broken in the shadow of victory.

Timing - or the lack of it - was the key to most of Canterbury's innings. Michael Papps worked his way to 57 but it took 117 balls. And that was a reflection of the Canterbury top order. Chris Harris was next in the scoring stakes with 33 but not a very comfortable 33 at that.

It was the medium pace of Barnes and the leg-spin of Brooke Walker that provided the most difficulty. Barnes took the wickets, three for 42 from eight overs, while Walker put the clamps on, his one wicket costing just 26 off his 10 overs.

If there were demons in the Boxing Day pitch, Cleighten Cornelius put them to rest, a rollicking undefeated 31 late in the innings pushing Canterbury to a defendable total.

Howell followed his example at the top of the Auckland innings, an occasionally lucky, often skillful but always belligerent 51 coming from 60 balls. But, with his departure and that of Matt Horne for 34 and Lou Vincent (0) and Rob Nicol (five) in quick succession, a rebuilding job was required.

Barnes and Pryor were the men for the job. With diligent use of singles into the wide open spaces and the occasional smite in anger, particularly by Barnes, they cruised to the shadow of victory in an 85-run partnership before Barnes departed for 56 from 66 balls.

The Canterbury bowling attack was limited by the absence of Paul Wiseman, injured as he took his first runs of the day when opening the batting. The wickets were shared around and so were the runs - except for Harris, celebrating his recall to the New Zealand squad with one for 26 from his 10 overs, the same as his Auckland spinning counterpart. Carl Anderson and Stephen Cunis picked up two apiece but were never on top of the batsmen.

Calm accumulation of singles with the occasional strike in anger saw Auckland home with an over and a ball to spare in a textbook lesson of pacing a run chase, ending on 201 for seven.