Cricket: Nicol sends his old mates on route B to final

Rob Nicol. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Auckland must take route B to contest the national one-day final.

Canterbury won the major preliminary final by 41 runs in Christchurch yesterday, leaving Auckland to play Otago at Colin Maiden Park on Wednesday.

The winner returns to Christchurch for the final on Sunday.

Canterbury made 268 for eight, with key contributions coming from former Auckland allrounder Rob Nicol, with 87, and Dean Brownlie, who made 72. The pair shared a 136-run third wicket stand, which put the foundation into the Canterbury innings.

Nicol continued his fine campaign by taking his run tally past 500 and bumping his average to 66. Test seamer Chris Martin led the attack with three for 48.

Auckland seemed in good shape during the chase when Lou Vincent and Jeet Raval added 118 in 94 balls for the second wicket.

However they departed in consecutive overs. Although there were twenties from captain Gareth Hopkins, Colin Munro and Colin de Grandhomme, Auckland's middle-lower order failed to see the job through.

"We just failed to string together another partnership," Auckland coach Paul Strang said last night. "We've got a number of guys in our side who will be disappointed they didn't take on some responsibility today."

Last season Auckland made the final directly, had a week off and lost to ND in the decider. Now they will take the other path to the final.

"Our job is to regroup, look forward to Wednesday and put things right," Strang added.

An unbroken 165-run stand for the sixth wicket helped Otago beat ND by nine runs in a Duckworth Lewis calculation in a rain-affected game in Queenstown.

ND made 271 for eight, BJ Watling hitting a half-century. Otago were in trouble at 80 for five before Darren Broom (83 not out) and Derek de Boorder (74 not out) pulled the innings round.

Otago were 245 for five, with four overs left when the game finished.