da 888casino： Canterbury finished the day on 257/5 but honours were shared on day oneafter Northern Districts fought back during an intriguing day of ShellTrophy cricket in Rangiora
Steve Deane13-Dec-2000Canterbury finished the day on 257/5 but honours were shared on day oneafter Northern Districts fought back during an intriguing day of ShellTrophy cricket in Rangiora.With Canterbury 107/0 at lunch and both openers looking untroubled on abenign pitch it looked as if a repeat of last week’s one innings drawagainst Auckland could eventuate.But the defending champion Northern side showed what a hardened,professional outfit it is by strangling the Canterbury run-rate and chippingaway with wickets throughout the second and third sessions.Early on it didn’t appear as if the pace bowlers would prosper on a pitchthat was slow in pace and low in bounce. Edges didn’t look like carrying towicket keeper Robbie Hart, despite him standing close to the wicket.Northern began the match in search of a record eighth consecutive win. Toachieve the milestone the Northern players will have to overcome not only aspirited Canterbury side, but also the disadvantage of losing the toss andbeing forced to bowl first on a well-grassed but hard, dry pitch.Coach Chris Kuggeleijn said the record was not a motivating factor and itsdiscussion had “barely come up” in his team’s pre-match preparations. Hesaid Grant Bradburn’s 100th match was a far more import milestone and itwould be nice to win the match for him.Canterbury captain Gary Stead looked to be in fine touch, scoring his thirdconsecutive half-century in leading his team to a dominant position atlunch. But shortly after the break, with his score on 80, he missed astraight ball form left-arm spinner Bruce Martin when attempting a sweep andwas adjudged LBW by Australian umpire Peter Parker.Opening partner Robbie Frew (53) and Jarred Englefield (13) followed inquick succession as Northern struck back in the middle session.Chris Harris (46) and Michael Papps (35) set about repairing the damage witha partnership of 77 before Simon Doull struck with the second new ball.Although, as Kuggeleijn described it, Doull bowled at a pace “barely hardenough to knock the bails off” he swung the second new ball both ways andpicked up the well set Harris and Papps in a seven over spell that cost only12 runs.Northern’s fightback stemmed from its ability to cut off the flow of runs tothe Canterbury batsmen, with only 62 scored in the final session.The inability of the Canterbury batsmen to go on after getting starts, andthe absence throughout the day of drives down the ground, suggests thatscoring runs on the dull Dudley Park pitch is not easy. But nor, it seems,is taking wickets.Kuggeleijn agreed Northern had fought back well but said he would have beenhappier if Doull had picked up another wicket with the second new ball. Hesaid his side still had a lot of work to do to capture the remaining fiveCanterbury wickets when play resumed tomorrow.A concern to the purist would be the insidious creep of Cricket Max into thefirst-class game. The Northern players took the field in what can only bedescribed as butt-ugly pinstriped shirts. There is, of course, no room inthe game for such flashy nonsense. Next thing you know they’ll be admittingwomen into the Long Room. Quite outrageous.