South Canterbury piles on runs

South Canterbury earned first innings points against North Otago when the two associations met in a zone four Hawke Cup elimination round over the weekend in Timaru.

Bad weather forced a change of venue from Aorangi Park to the Pleasant Point domain.

South Canterbury won the toss, and its batting line-up feasted on a mediocre North Otago attack.

The side declared late on the first day with 400 runs on the board, and as an added bonus took the wicket of opener Lachie Kingan, with North Otago 367 runs in arrears at stumps on the first day.

The South Canterbury innings was built around partnerships. The second-wicket stand between Matt Brown (66) and Jacob Naylor (24) put on 63 runs before the middle order fired, with the fourth wicket adding 84 runs — dominated by Liam Beck (61) — and No. 4 Josh Smallridge also made 62 before being the sixth wicket to fall, with the total at 268.

But there was more to come from the South Canterbury batsmen, with Phil Lill (75) and William Sharp (59) guiding the side through to 400  before the the declaration came. Resuming at 33 for one on day two, North Otago lost the wickets of Jeremy Shields (21) and Cormack Hassett (20) to Stan Mair in the first session of the second day and went to lunch three down for 108.

After the lunch break, Lewie Johnson and Jeremy Smith added a further 47 runs before rain forced a break in play.  Johnson was on 66 at that point, having brought up his half century off 66 balls in 98 minutes, hitting six fours and a six.

When the rain stopped shortly after 2.30pm, Johnson made his intention obvious, racing through to 88  before he was caught by Mark Brown off Lill’s bowling, ending a fourth wicket stand of 131 runs with Smith. Smith lost his wicket at 53, but Francois Mostert added 36 before the lower order crumpled,  adding just  48 runs, and the innings closed at 278, forcing North Otago to follow on 122 behind going into the final session.

When play was abandoned for the weekend, North Otago was 87 for three in its second innings, and South Canterbury took first innings points.

- Terry O'Neill

Add a Comment

OUTSTREAM