Mason leads Central Districts to victory with day to spare

Fine bowling by former Pahiatua farmer Michael Mason, who claimed his first five-wicket bag, helped Central Districts beat Otago by nine wickets with a day to spare in a first round Shell Trophy cricket match at Wanganui's Victoria Park today.

Medium fast Mason, who made his CD debut in 1997, took his career wicket tally to 38 with his reward of 5-44 of 21 overs.

It was a notable if not great performance with a few wayward deliveries but 25-year-old Mason's effort enabled CD to dismiss Otago for 139 from 59.3 overs and leave Central a target of only 35 runs for the first outright victory of the trophy season.

Only opener Matt Horne (73) and fellow former New Zealand representative Martyn Croy (25), also the top scorers in the first innings of 175, managed any real resistance to a steady CD bowling attack.

Horne hit eight boundaries in his 196 minutes at the crease before falling caught and bowled to Mason and Croy batted 54 minutes for his 25.

The fall of the two wickets, within four runs of each other, signalled the start of the end of the innings although Nathan McCullum (10 in 40 minutes) and David Sewell (unbeaten seven in 31 minutes) offered some tail end resistance.

Otago started the day badly with the loss of two early wickets after suffering the same fate before overnight stumps and never really recovered.

Once the Horne-Croy stand was broken the writing was on the wall with the 139 runs taking 254 minutes, the 50 coming in 93 minutes and the 100 in 183. Horne took 131 minutes for his half century.

Mason (5-44) and Gareth West (3-46) were the most successful bowlers. CD lost opener David Kelly (15 in even time including three fours) in the easy quest for victory, the target of 35 runs coming in 38 minutes.

CD coach Dipak Patel was delighted with the outright victory, saying that the batting of Ben Smith (124), David Kelly (70) and Mark Douglas (34) in CD's 280 and sound bowling had reaped rewards for the team.

Otago coach Dennis Aberhart blamed poor batting for the demise of his side.

"They (CD) bowled well at times but we batted badly in both innings and there were some soft dismissals amongst the top order players."

"Hopefully they will show their true batting ability in future performances, and hopefully starting with the one-dayer on Sunday," said Aberhart.

He said that in reality the century from Smith and the two century partnerships he was associated with were the difference between the two teams.

Final scores - Central Districts 280 and 35-1 beat Otago 175 and 139 by nine wickets. Match ended at 3.30pm.

Saturday is now a spare day with the Shell Cup match starting at 12 noon on Sunday.