Partnership saves day for Hawke's Bay

Umpires Chris Dear and Kym Taylor deliberated on the field with the captains of both the teams.
Amid some solemn gesturing, Hawke's Bay senior men's coach, Lincoln Doull, pulled out the rulebook at the Nelson Park pavilion, Napier, on Saturday.
Several minutes later, the verdict was unanimous - it was pointless soldiering on because the two-day Hawke Cup match was petering out to a draw.
The Bay claimed the vital seven first-innings points against Wairarapa to continue their march towards a cup challenge for the bragging rights to minor union supremacy.
The turning point of the game was the 101-run seventh-wicket partnership between first-class Central Districts batsman Brad Patton and No8 batsman Stevie Smidt.
Patton, missing out on the CD Twenty20 team for the HRV Cup campaign, played an educated innings, mustering ones and twos punctuated by 13 boundaries before revealing he would have liked to play for higher honours.
"I'm obviously disappointed not to make the squad to have an opportunity but, hey, that's out of my control so I'll just have to score more runs and try to get back in there," said Patton, who was part of the HRV Cup-winning squad in the 2009-10 season.
"I made a 100 today and, hopefully, I'll do it again tomorrow [yesterday in the Chapple Cup one-day match against Wairarapa] to squeeze my way back in.
"That's not up to me but for the people in charge to make that decision."
The wicket posed some difficulties with rain overnight and, on Friday morning, robbed the match of some overs.
"There was quite a bit of moisture and green underneath the covers so we got put in and we were in trouble.
"The guys got nicked to good balls so we had to be quite circumspect about how we played and couldn't just go out and whack it," he said as Smidt scored 40 runs.
No9 Mitchell McClenaghan, who was also unlucky to miss the CD T20 side, was unbeaten on 50 in the first innings of 305 all out after 91 overs on Saturday, including five fours.
Smidt claimed career-best figures for the Bay of four scalps from 12.3 overs, including six maidens, for 23 runs to help skittle the visitors for 155 runs in 62.3 overs.
McClenaghan claimed three wickets, fellow Cornwall Cricket Club allrounder Carl Cachopa nailed two and Napier Tech's Liam Rukuwai lived up to his frugal reputation with one wicket.
Patton said holding back on shots until the ball got a little older and stopped moving was the edict to pull the Bay out of the doldrums on Friday.
With the rain interruption, any talk of an outright win was always going to be wishful thinking.
"Getting outright in any two-day cricket is pretty tough cricket," he said.
Smidt, 21, who took part in the Canterbury Wizards' trials after finishing university studies last month, felt having a few games under his belt for Lancaster Cricket Club in Christchurch before playing here was a factor in his robust performance.
"The last time I got home from uni, I didn't play any cricket at all.
"The trials was only for one day but I bowled to some good players so it was good experience," said Smidt, who hopes to put his hand up for Canterbury next summer, especially if CD looks saturated in player numbers.
"It's the highest I've played because I haven't been getting many chances to bat so, hopefully, if I can keep going I can push up a bit."
He's one paper shy of completing his sport and recreation management degree, which he hopes to complete from here next year.
Top-order batsman Willum Pepping's batting woes continued with lean pickings - a pair of threes from both innings.
Fellow Cornwall teammate Michael Taiaroa was again in fine form, unbeaten on 53 with Bay skipper James de Terte not out on 10 when the umpires lifted the bails after 24 overs.
Taiaroa, who has scored three premier club tons and a Bay rep one, jetted off today to Ireland to spend a white Christmas with his girlfriend there.
Wairarapa coach Mark Brown rued the stalemate, agreeing his troops had their foot on the Bay's throat but let it go while his batsmen failed to post significant partnerships with patience.
"We had a similar start against Manawatu where we had them five for 120 and then couldn't finish them off so they ended up scoring 300 just like Hawke's Bay did.
"It's something we need to address. We're lacking a bit of experience in our bowling line-up and we're lacking a bit of firepower," Brown said.
Young medium pacer Nik Karaitiana, who replaced CD bowler Seth Rance, had claimed three wickets akin to Daniel Haxton.
Wairarapa play Taranaki after New Year because of the double booking with a Stags match in New Plymouth.
"I would have liked taking on Taranaki after playing Manawatu and Hawke's Bay to keep us up against the big three," said Brown, who will have to settle for finding form at club level.
Scoreboard - p12.