Wellington secure first points and some confidence

Matthew Walker's emergence as a cornerstone of Wellington's first-class and one-day cricket teams has become more conspicuous over the four days of their drawn State Championship match against Central Districts at the Basin Reserve.

Walker has been a steady but a quiet achiever who, by his own admission, has performed less well with the bat than his talent should have permitted and whose bowling has not always received the acknowledgement it deserves.

This match, which was drawn when light rain ended play shortly before tea after Wellington had claimed first innings points, has emphasised Walker's value to Wellington as an all-rounder who could be considered for selection solely as a bowler or a batsman.

He achieved his first first-class century in Wellington's first innings to show he could be relied on to bat higher in the innings than nine - his station in this match - and he had a hand in the three dimissals that brought Central's first innings to a close this morning. He finished with a catch and 3-45 from 27.5 overs.

Central were all out for 287 after resuming for 260/7 in reply to Wellington's 326/8 declared. Wellington had taken a 39-run advantage and increased it to 149, reaching 110/3 in their second innings, before rain and the inevitability of a draw brought play to a close more than two hours early.

Richard Jones provided the feature of Wellington's second innings, a pleasing and sometimes pugnacious 59 which was his third half century in Championship matches this season. He batted only 138 minutes, faced 96 balls and advanced his scoring with a six ahnd six fours.

Jones has shown better touch, consistently, than any of Wellington's specialist batsmen this season - discounting New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming who scored 115 in his only innings in this match and is unlikely to bat for the province in first-class matches again this season. His score in this match can be added to a 52 against Auckland and a century against Canterbury.

Not all of his shots were sweetly timed but when he rounded on any short pitched delivery, he was able to crash them through the leg side with genuine ferocity.

Compare his innings with that of Phil Chandler who, scratching for form, took more than two hours to reach 16 by stumps.

The sad aspect of the match for Wellington was that their captain, Matthew Bell, was unable to stay longer at the wicket today after making a promising start to his second innings and after being out for 12 in the first.

Bell batted for 45 minutes and included some confident shots, some stout defence, in a composed effort which ended when he was caught by wicket-keeper Bevan Griggs from the first ball of the first over bowled by Andrew Schwass. He faced 45 balls and hit four fours.

Glen Sulzberger accounted for the two other Wellington wickets to fall, for Jones and Grant Donaldson who were both caught by Mathew Sinclair at first slip - Jones out of the wicket-keeper's glove.

Wellington were efficient this morning in mopping up the Central tail and claiming two valuable points for a first innings lead. They have at least partly bridged the gap to competition leaders Canterbury, who also took two points from their abandoned match against Northern Districts at Gisborne.

Central had added only eight runs to their overnight score when Brent Hefford was out for two in the sixth over of the morning, caught by Walker at second slip from Andrew Penn's bowling. Penn bowled a good spell today of seven overs, three of which were maidens and took 1-9.

Walker did the rest, removing the dangerman Schwass for 40 - caught by Bell at cover - and ending the innings when he trapped Lance Hamilton lbw for 0. Michael Mason was left 11 not out.