Dizzy pitch leaves no room for lbw debates

When umpires agree with more than two or three lbw appeals per innings there may be dark mutterings about what might be the partiality, pin-pricking or faulty eyesight of the adjudicators.

Today Brent Bowden, the Test umpire, and Tony Hill, who should soon become one, were the central figures as Central Districts and Auckland showed jittery early-season batting form on a frisky patch on the Eden Park Outer Oval.

Central Districts scored 126 in 59 overs and Auckland replied with 90 for five wickets - 216 runs from 100 overs on a reasonably summery day.

In contrast, Messrs Bowden and Hill set a cracking pace. After being forced to bat first on a greenish pitch Central lost their first, third, fourth, sixth, seventh and eight wickets to successful lbw appeals.

Auckland lost their third and fifth wickets leg before, and if the pitch might have been losing some of its mischief the Central Districts fieldsmen and bowlers still reached a higher decibel rate than the Aucklanders achieved.

Yet by stumps there was none of the ill-favoured comment which sometimes follows over-involvement by the umpires. No-one was complaining of being dimissed through a bad umpiring decision.

And to the un-aligned observer among the 100 or so spectators, Messrs Bowden and Hill might have been justified in agreeing with several more appeals.

It was one of those giddy pitches which the Eden Park Outer Oval occasionally throws up. Last year on the same ground Northern Districts lost their first five second innings wickets to lbw appeals.

Today the grass on the pitch kept the ball smooth, so it retained shine and swing. The seam stayed hard, and so sharp was the sideways seam movement from the pitch that some of the faster bowlers seemed to be delivering 130kph off breaks which thudded into the pads and raised choruses of appeals.

The most dedicated batting came from Bevan Griggs, the 23-year-old Central Districts wicket-keeper whose 31 was the only offering above 29 from the 18 batsmen on view.

Griggs came in at 65 for five, and he and Jamie How simply tried to survive, scoring runs was a luxury. Griggs was still stoically there at the end, 31 not out from 72 balls in 109 minutes while Central crawled along from 65 to 126.

It said as much for the fallibility of the other Central batsmen as it did for the big-spending of the Auckland medium-fast men that the biggest contribution to the Central Districts cause was not Griggs, but the Auckland extras which amounted to 34.

All four Auckland seamers, Tama Canning, Andre Adams (three wickets each) and Kyle Mills and Richard Morgan (two apiece) had a profitable time, exaggerated by the help from the pitch for their length and accuracy varied too much.

In the Auckland innings Matt Horne survived an appealing opening chorus from Brent Hefford, then played several rousing strokes for fours, but then was badly tucked up by a sharp lifter from Michael Mason and was caught close in.

One Auckland newcomer Nick Horsley had a slow start, played some good-looking left-handed shots and then was caught in the lbw web. Rob Nicol, the other debutant, struggled to get going, but defended sensibly and at the end was still there, 10 not out after 80 minutes, in league with his captain Brooke Walker, nine not out after a mere 56 minutes.

So the game is nicely in the balance. Either side has a winning chance - the only certainty seems to be that, given good weather, that decision will be known long before the appointed end on Thursday evening.