Canterbury take out one of the easier wins of the summer

Canterbury finally got their one-day show on the road with a comfortable nine-wicket State Shield win over Central Districts at Hagley Oval today, but no sooner have they got their momentum up than they have to break it to play a four-day match.

CD were dismissed for a poor 67 runs, the victims of some tight and well-directed bowling by Canterbury, but some poor batting judgment on their own part.

They were dismissed off 21.4 overs, to which Canterbury replied off 17.2 overs.

It was yet another game this summer that failed to go the distance, and this one didn't even go 40 overs!

Battling a broken thumb, which was broken in CD's second round game, Craig Spearman hit out for 26 runs off 21 balls, but seven of his batsmen got themselves out for ducks on one of the sorrier looking scoreboards of recent times.

Chris Martin made the first breakthrough when Jamie How played on during the game's first over and then he bowled CD newcomer Ross Taylor in the same fashion.

But it was Hayden Shaw, who really destroyed the side by picking up Spearman in his second over. Spearman was dropped by Cleighten Cornelius in Shaw's first over, the first of three boundaries he hammered in the over.

Then off the first ball of his second over, Shaw had his reward when the CD captain was out, caught at point.

Next ball, Martin got back in the action when running around from fine leg to backward square leg to pick up the ball and rifle in a direct hit which left Ian Sandbrook just short of his ground, attempting a third run for Glen Sulzberger, to be run out without facing a ball.

And two balls later Bevan Griggs edged a ball to wicket-keeper Michael Papps.

Stephen Cunis changed ends and took three wickets in short order, including the removal of Sulzberger for 14 while Craig McMillan picked up the last two wickets for seven runs.

Spearman said it was a very disappointing performance by CD on a pitch that he described as "not fantastic".

"If the bowlers hit the right length it was a bit hard to bat," he said.

It had been an important game for the side because they had injury problems and they were looking for some options for the remainder of the programme.

Spearman won't be playing the four-day game against Canterbury in Timaru starting on Thursday and is having 10 days off. He is hopeful his thumb will be significantly better by then. He had continued playing when he probably shouldn't have out of a sense of responsibility to the side.

He said blocking the ball was more painful than hitting out because when attacking the ball you went through with the shot and it didn't jar in the way a defensive shot did.

But with Andrew Schwass also out with a hamstring injury, Jesse Ryder with a knee injury and now Jacob Oram with a broken finger, the pressure would be on the side in the later half of the Shield programme.

The loss was a continuation of problems that had started with the dramatic loss to Otago at Pukekura Park, a loss he was still trying to understand.

For Canterbury the win was much more satisfactory and reflected the confidence that captain Gary Stead took into the match.

He had felt the side was not far off coming up with the goods.

"It was nice to have something go our way for a change," he said.

There had been a little variation in bounce in the pitch, and Stead said, if the sun had been shining instead of the heavy cloud cover when play started he would have batted first.

But his bowlers had done the job very well and then opening batsmen Papps and Shanan Stewart had given the side a good start and achieved their third half-century stand of the season. They put on 56 before Stewart was out leg before wicket to Brent Hefford for 29 off 38 balls.

McMillan was next man in and had the honour of hitting the winning run, but would have been unhappy to have waited 14 balls for his first run.

Stead said it was not ideal to have the side's rhythm broken now by the need to play a four-day game in the middle of the Shield programme but the side could still take the positives from today's result into the four-dayer against the same opposition.

He added that the constant flow of traffic into and out of the side caused by the needs of the national selectors was a small disruption but with the calibre of the players involved it was not a problem and, anyway, it was something the Canterbury side had become used to.