Cricket: Volts share the points

Hamish Rutherford
Hamish Rutherford
Duckworth and Lewis had the final say at the Basin Reserve in Wellington yesterday, leaving Otago with neither a win nor a loss.

The Ford Trophy clash between the Otago Volts and Wellington Firebirds ended in a tie after rain interrupted Wellington's bid to overtake Otago's total of 249.

The sides are equal fifth on the points table.

The two sides left the Basin sharing the points, due to the Duckworth Lewis method, which had the par score at 74 after 23 overs if the chasing side had lost just one wicket.

Sure enough, that was exactly Wellington's score when opener Michael Papps and No3 Stephen Murdoch walked off the Basin.

There were brief signs that play might restart just before 7pm, allowing Wellington seven overs to score another 66 runs for the win, but that never eventuated.

In hindsight, Wellington's batsmen will be grateful for the acceleration in their innings after reaching a laborious 42 runs when drinks were taken after 18 overs of the Wellington innings.

Papps and Murdoch added 32 runs in the next five overs, perhaps sensing the need to up the run rate in case of rain. Papps finished on 30, and brought up 5000 runs in domestic one-day cricket when he reached 27.

Volts opening bowler Jacob Duffy made batting hard work for the home side in its chase, conceding just eight runs off his five overs and snaring Michael Pollard for five in the fourth over.

Duffy was supported by the first-change pair of off-spinner Mark Craig and left-armer Bradley Scott, who kept Wellington's run rate down until after drinks.

A middling result of a tie was probably appropriate after Otago made its way to 249 without ever quite dominating.

Volts captain Hamish Rutherford won the toss and elected to bat on a slightly overcast day that later turned to rain.

Otago started well and the opening partnership of Michael Bracewell and Anaru Kitchen put on 27 at four runs an over, before Kitchen departed at the hands of Wellington's veteran seamer Brent Arnel for 18.

Kitchen's wicket brought the in-form Neil Broom to the crease, and he combined for a 70-run partnership with Bracewell (38).

Broom kept going after Bracewell left with the score at 97, reaching his 50 with consecutive fours off Luke Woodcock.

However, Broom left on 54 when he hit a catch back to Jeetan Patel, and all momentum was lost in the next over when Rutherford went for a quickfire 32 off 26 balls.

Derek De Boorder provided resistance and run production at No6, scoring 34 off 54 balls. He received good support from Mark Craig (46), who took to Woodcock with two sixes off the spinner's final over.

Craig gave Arnel his 100th list A wicket when he was caught in the 47th over, and Otago fell almost three overs short of batting out the 50 overs.

In the other two round-six games, Canterbury maintained top spot with a 98-run win over Auckland in Christchurch, courtesy of 96 from Tom Latham.

Canterbury's 265 was too much for the Aces, who lurched to 41 for six before limping through to 167 in 35.5 overs.

The Northern Knights picked up their second win with a comprehensive eight-wicket victory over Central Districts.

Doug Bracewell scored 80 at No7 to give the Central Stags a sniff of hope of victory as the visitors reached 224 at Whangarei, but an unbeaten 198-run third-wicket partnership between Dean Brownlie (107) and Anton Devcich (99) allowed the Knights to coast to victory.

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