Cricket: Jones leaving Auckland in good shape

Richard Jones. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Richard Jones' perfect ending to his first-class career would have had him hitting the winning runs off the final ball to win the Plunket Shield for Auckland this week.

But that's the thing about dream scenarios; they don't often come off.

Instead the Auckland opener had to settle for a superb 170 not out in his 215th first-class innings to steer his team to a seven-wicket win over Canterbury.

It was his fourth hundred of the shield season, lifted Auckland off the bottom of the table and left him with a whopping 953 runs at a fine 59.56 for the campaign.

You might argue the 36-year-old is in prime form and could go around the block one more time. But there are no regrets. The time is right to move on.

"It was always going to be my last season. Sooner or later you've got to call it a day," Jones said yesterday. "We had a changeover of captaincy [Jones to Gareth Hopkins] this season, I've got a family business to get involved with and we [with wife Sally] made the decision to get on with things."

Jones was to play just one test, against Pakistan in 2003, plus five ODIs, from which he averaged a handy 33.6.

His first-class career, which began in the 1993-94 season - and included a three-season spell midway through at Wellington - comprised 124 games and produced 7254 runs, with 19 hundreds and 33 fifties, for an average of 35.73.

Only Trevor Franklin, with 5051 runs, has scored more in first-class cricket for Auckland than Jones' 4721.

He didn't play much Twenty20 or one-day cricket for Auckland this summer and by his own admission he's not great sitting on the bench.

That said, Jones likes what he sees of Auckland right now, hopes he's leaving the province in better shape than when he arrived and is enthusiastic about the young players coming through.

"There's a lot of fabulous players there, like [Anaru] Kitchen, [Andrew] de Boorder, [Colin] de Grandhomme and especially Jeet Raval. It's time for them now, they're ready to go."

He might play for North Shore next summer, but he'll mull that over for a few months. Jones is on the board of the New Zealand Cricket Players' Association so certainly won't be lost to the game.

Coaching? Perhaps in years to come, but he'll always be available for a chat if any players want an experienced ear to turn to.

"Helping guys out either mentally or yarning about cricket and how to go about it, that's probably what I'm more interested in," he said.

There's plenty of fretting about the batting and seam bowling departments in the New Zealand side. However, Jones is optimistic on both fronts, and puts it down in large part to the improved state of the country's pitches.

"The batting is getting better. People go on about pitches being flat and they are. But you're now getting guys like Jesse Ryder, Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor there. The stocks are pretty good in that regard.

"And you've got young Kane Williamson coming through and I think he's a fabulous player."

Jones believes the lean fast bowling options will improve. The improved pitches will encourage young fast bowlers to keep up their pace, rather than revert to medium pace line and length, where not long ago ordinary pitches helped inflate bowling figures.

"Now you're going to get the young guys coming through who are going to bowl those thunderbolts."

Central Districts' Mitchell McClenaghan, injured for much of this season, is one to have taken Jones' eye.

His biggest worry lies with spin bowling. "What happens if Dan Vettori breaks down? That really is a concern because I don't see lot of that coming around. That's my concern, who is the next cab off the rank."

Northern Districts rounded off their season in appropriate fashion, beating Central Districts by six wickets to finish 16 points clear at the top.

Hamish Marshall (108), Brad Wilson (101 not out) and captain James Marshall (62 not out) enabled ND to reach 411 for four for their sixth outright win.

Otago, chasing 600 to beat bottom-finishers Wellington, reached 344 for seven.