Wellington produce strong all-round performance for seven-wicket win

Wellington cruised to a share of the top of the State Shield points table with Otago after an outstanding seven-wicket win over Canterbury at Hagley Oval today.

The two sides have played some classic matches over the years, but this wasn't one of them. Wellington were too dominant, courtesy of a clean-out of Canterbury's middle-order, from which Canterbury couldn't recover.

Their innings was inflated by a superb lower-order 40 by Shane Bond off 30 balls which at least lifted the side from 130 for seven which was a calamitous position. It was a useful reminder that fast bowling is not the only string to Bond's bow.

His innings allowed Canterbury to end their 50 overs on 188 for nine.

Earlier, openers Michael Papps and Shanan Stewart gave Canterbury a great base from which to build their innings scoring 69 runs in a respectable 18 overs. They each scored 33 runs with Papps taking 54 balls and Stewart 77.

But the middle of the Canterbury innings was plagued by a slow run rate resulting from some tight bowling by the Wellingtonians.

Mark Gillespie bowled nine overs for 21 runs and three wickets, those of Papps, Chris Cairns and Gary Stead.

Cairns was making his return to the representative side and he scored 24 runs off 45 balls. Chris Harris had returned quickly from the One-Day International at Queenstown but was dismissed by Paul Hitchcock for five, who also picked up Jarrod Englefield for six runs to finish with two for 42.

Ash Turner was another key performer, bowling his 10 overs for only 20 runs. He now has a very healthy career economy rate of 3.26. Matthew Walker maintained his ability to trouble batsmen and finished with three for 43.

Wellington then came out and made light of the conditions at the ground. Chris Nevin with 34 off 39 balls, shared an opening stand of 60 with Matthew Bell in 11.1 overs. Bell was able to ensure his side had a comfortable ride by scoring 80 in 111 balls being the last man dismissed 13 runs short of victory.

It more than doubled Bell's contribution to the side in the series so far. He scored his half-century from 85 balls.

He shared a 99-run stand with Richard Jones for the second wicket. Jones was bowled by Harris for 42 off 68 balls. Once he was out, at 159, Wellington promoted Hitchcock to No 4 clearly chasing the bonus point that was available if they could reach their runs before the end of the 40th over.

Hitchcock did just what was required to score 13 off 16 balls while Walker joined him for the last phase, hitting a six in the process to score nine off eight balls. They reached the bonus point with two balls to spare.

Chris Martin had taken two wickets for 32 from 8.5 overs while Harris took one for 30 from eight overs to be the side's only wicket-takers. Cairns did not make an appearance at the bowling crease.