Wellington saved by New Plymouth's rain and CD frustrated again

Rain and Central Districts have flirted hand-in-hand this State Shield season, but tonight at Yarrow Stadium in New Plymouth rain got the better of the argument.

When play was finally called off at 10.35pm, Wellington's batting was waving the white flag at 57 for seven wickets in chase of Central Districts' 150. Thus only Auckland comes out of tonight with points and takes the championship lead with 23.

Central goes to 20 to lie in equal third behind Auckland and Canterbury (21).

Central can think of this game and the no result with Otago after being in a dominant position last week as cruel blows - but they must also remember getting two points out of a no result with Auckland when 16 for four wickets in chase of 250-plus.

Wellington has had its problems recently and continued them today with bowling which lacked the absolute accuracy needed in such ideal conditions - and then with batting which never managed to come to grips with sharp Central Districts bowling.

Chris Nevin's effort was typical. After playing and missing several times in the first two overs Nevin decided he had to throw the bat and raced to 20 quickly before he was dismissed.

Clearly he felt the pitch was doing too much after recent rain in New Plymouth to guarantee staying in for a period, and he decided to score what he could, when he could.

Other batsmen on both sides tried to guts it out, none better than Central's Glen Sulzberger, who took 97 balls to reach his 44 but still managed to anchor a reasonable total after Central itself had been 61 for six wickets.

He had good later help from Bevan Griggs, Michael Mason and Brent Hefford, while Wellington medium-pacer Matthew Walker shone with a sharp spell gaining him five for 22.

Medium-paced Hefford similarly shone for Central in taking two wickets for eight in sevens overs. Both players are similarly paced and found a wicket that suited them ideally. Hefford dismissed Grant Donaldson and Paul Hitchcock in a very tight spell that was the base of the Central Districts effort.

Mason, Jacob Oram and Lance Hamilton all bowled superbly. So when the rain came, there was really only the one team in it.

Play stopped at 9.18pm, after 24 overs, six short of the 30 needed to complete a match.

The rain stopped long enough after 15 minutes for the covers to be removed - and then, as if on cue, it came down heavier than ever.

This shower lasted until 9.50pm, and the covers were removed a few minutes later, Then came a prolonged discussion between Wellington coach Vaughn Johnson, captain Matthew Bell and the match officials, with Wellington not wanting to get back on because they had little chance of winning and would lose the two match points for the no result.

That settled, and work starting on getting rid of the moisture - you guessed it - it started raining again.

With six overs needing to be bowled, play had to start by 10.36pm to allow Central a chance, but the rain refused to stop.