Horsley and Canning blast Auckland to Championship

A Nick Horsley century and an explosive hour before tea put all the permutations, calculations and mathematical intrusions surrounding the last State Championship match of the season to rest as Auckland first cemented its title.

In a match of two targets, Wellington on the last day set themselves the task of, at best bowling Auckland out for 168 or fewer to win the Championship based on a net average runs per wicket calculation or, at worse bowl Auckland out for less than 242 to gain the solace of an outright win over the champions.

But in 11-and-a-half overs from the afternoon drinks break to shortly before tea Horsley and Tama Canning plundered 79 to take the score from 81/3 to 160/4 and in the process buried Wellington's hopes of achieving either target.

Canning ended his spree with 43, characteristically caught on the boundary. Horsley went on to complete his maiden first-class century, a mixture of early defence that turned into an aggressive attack, his 100 coming from 186 balls and including three sixes and 14 fours.

In the end, bad light saved Wellington from outright defeat, Auckland finishing on 217/4 with 22 overs in hand, a miserly 26 runs short, but not able to cast sufficient light on the increasing gloom.

At the start of the day, Wellington, 10/1 overnight and facing an exceptionally defensive field, pushed the singles around to reach 48 without losing another wicket. At that point they declared, giving Auckland the relatively generous target of 243 runs from a minimum of 88 overs to win the match but at the same time giving themselves sufficient time to bowl Auckland out for fewer than the 169 that the calculators had decided would give the Championship leaders the title.

Wellington had achieved a couple of Houdini escapes during the season; this was not to be one of them.

For a time they had some hope. Tim McIntosh gone in the first over, beaten by Andrew Penn. Rob Lynch (20) and Sanjeewa Silva (15) gone by the middle of the afternoon with the run rate never much above two an over. But time was slipping away for Wellington.

Then came the Horsley/Canning heroics and Wellington's hopes were quickly buried. Bowlers who had kept the Auckland batsmen constrained suddenly looked easy pickings, no better demonstrated than by Horsley's cracking three fours in an over from James Franklin to rush through the 90s and beyond.

It was an anti-climax that a match worthy of a Championship final - albeit a de facto one - should come to an end prematurely through the intrusion of bad light.

Wellington had done everything they could to try to bring off what was always an unlikely Championship victory - a big first innings total, restricting Auckland's first innings and offering a generous declaration. But it was not enough. First inning points were little solace for the loss of a title that was never quite in their grasp.