Cricket: Auckland suffer deja vu as wheels come off their one-day campaign again

Auckland's players could be forgiven for imagining they're stuck in a one-day desert; they're spinning the wheels as hard as they can, but getting nowhere fast.

Last season Auckland were beaten in nine of their 10 State Shield matches. This season they are 0 and 3 in the national one-day competition after an embarrassing seven-wicket third-round loss to Canterbury at Eden Park's outer oval on Saturday.

They were rolled for just 100, 21-year-old newcomer Leighton Burtt snaffling five for 26 and Canterbury took only 21.4 overs to pound out the target.

That follows losses to Otago and Wellington, and although coach Mark O'Donnell insisted the season was still alive, he knows the slump must end shortly - preferably against Northern Districts at Eden Park tomorrow - or this campaign will go down the drain.

These players, remember, are the national four-day champions, which makes you wonder what happens when they pull on the coloured strip.

O'Donnell sums up the one-day difficulties in one word: "Doubt".

"They don't quite know how to do it, as opposed to they do know how to do it in the four-day game," he said.

"One-day cricket is very much a momentum thing. You get on a roll, good or bad, and it's hard to break that. We're not doing the basics well enough. It's real simple.

"It's too soon to panic.

"The key is to continue to back yourselves, but when you haven't got too many runs behind you, there's a little bit of fear of failure comes into it."

O'Donnell will find out today which New Zealand players he will have available for tomorrow's game.

Scott Styris, ruled out of the ODI in Napier yesterday by a knee injury, is out of the frame. New ball bowler Kyle Mills missed yesterday with a groin strain, and O'Donnell expects he'll be rested by the New Zealand selectors.

He has his fingers crossed batsman Lou Vincent and fast-medium bowler Chris Martin will be available.

Among the batsmen, only Rob Nicol has found consistently good touch, with scores of 60, 88 not out and 36. Senior top order pair captain Richard Jones and experienced opener Tim McIntosh haven't made an impression and the bowlers have been only average.

Northern will be coming off a one-run loss to Otago in Hamilton on Friday night.

In Saturday's other game, Wellington beat Central Districts in the capital.

Wellington got 270 for seven, Jesse Ryder doing his chances of a national callup no harm with a breezy 61, and dismissed CD for 220, of which Mathew Sinclair made 64 off 67 balls.

In the other fourth-round games tomorrow, Canterbury host CD in Christchurch and Otago play Wellington at Carisbrook.

State Shield

After three rounds
* Wellington 12pts
* Otago 10
* Canterbury 9
* Northern Districts 5
* Central Districts 2
* Auckland 0