The Hawke's Bay offence at the start of the Hawke Cup defence against Bay of Plenty - four slips and wicketkeeper Kurtis Weeks. Photo / Warren Buckland
The Hawke's Bay offence at the start of the Hawke Cup defence against Bay of Plenty - four slips and wicketkeeper Kurtis Weeks. Photo / Warren Buckland
The threat of rain became reality at Nelson Park in Napier, with a mid-afternoon stoppage on the first afternoon of Hawke's Bay's three-day Hawke Cup defence against Bay of Plenty.
With the threat ever present from 10.30am, and the very lightest of rainspotting having already led to an early ballreplacement before midday, players left the field just after 3pm with Bay of Plenty at 155-5, after a stoic fightback by Oli White and Peter Drysdale, who had gone to lunch two hours earlier with their team reeling at 98-5.
The unbroken sixth-wicket partnership had reached 69, White not out on 69 and Drysdale on 34.
Hawke's Bay started aggressively with four slips and a backward point, which had immediate effect when the challenger's opener Niven Dovey was caught at second slip by Dominic Thompson, off opening bowler Liam Dudding's second ball.
From 1-0, second opener Taylor Bettelhiem and first-drop Blair McKenzie were able to get Bay of Plenty on the move but it was short-lived before second opener Bettelhiem was caught by Christian Leopard off the bowling of second opening bowler Ben Stoyanoff.
Making it 16-2, the top order was effectively gone with McKenzie caught behind by wicketkeeper Kurtis Weeks, off Dudding, to make it 30-3 in the 11th over.
First-change bowler William Clark was soon reaping some reward, too, claiming Bay of Plenty No 4 bat Fergus Lellman lbw in his fourth over.
There was a 40-run fifth wicket partnership in just 38 minutes, including an uncharacteristic 12 runs off the first over from captain and spinner Angus Shaw, and eight off the next from Todd Watson, before Schaw bowled Tim Pringle, with the score at 86.
Dudding finished his first spell with 2-18 off seven overs, and conceded just 10 runs off his next nine overs later in the day.
Play did not resume after the pre-tea intervention, and was called-off for the day about 5pm.
The forecast for the remainder of the challenge is poor with MetService forecasting mostly cloudy and humid conditions with "a few spots of rain" on Saturday and rain, possibly heavy, by Sunday afternoon, with a change from northerlies to a strong southwesterly.
