Cricket: Auckland strongly placed for comprehensive win

DUNEDIN - Otago face the cricket equivalent of conquering Everest if they are to beat Auckland in the Shell Trophy cricket match at Carisbrook today.

Shayne O'Connor produced an outstanding display of quality swing bowling to snare five wickets for 43 as Auckland were dismissed for 180 in their second innings yesterday.

But Otago, left to make 281 runs to win outright, were on the ropes at 39 for three at stumps last night as Auckland all-rounder Tama Canning completed an excellent day. There was the familiar clatter of early wickets when Otago set out to face the 17 overs before the close.

Otago started promisingly enough, Andrew Hore cracking Kerry Walmsley over cover off the back foot into the main stand for six and forcing again through the off-side for four. Then it all went horribly wrong. Hore fenced at Walmsley, was splendidly caught by diving wicketkeeper Reece Young, and this provoked a mini collapse.

Captain Robbie Lawson, who has scored seven runs in his four Shell Trophy innings, squared up to Canning and was caught behind and Mark Richardson was leg before next ball to complete a pair for the match.

Stephen Mather survived Canning's attempted hat-trick and he and Matt Horne batted with some composure to temporarily stall the panic stations.

Canning's double breakthrough was his piece de resistance after he had earlier scored a free-flowing 53 off 86 balls with some of the best batting of the match. While others struggled, he prospered with some handsome driving, cracking nine fours in his half-century before he hooked Mather and Chris Gaffaney took a good running catch at deep backward square.

The pitch has been reasonably amiable for batting. Yet there were 259 for seven wickets on the first day, 209 for 10 wickets on the second and 221 for 15 yesterday. It is much better than those figures suggest.

Auckland did well to reach 180 yesterday after they crashed to 23 for four and later 100 for seven against the controlled swing bowling of O'Connor and the persistence of Mather.

- NZPA