Cricket: Central dish out painful lesson

By TERRY MADDAFORD

Auckland were handed a hiding by Central Districts in their Shell Cup match on Eden Park's outer oval yesterday.

Bundled out for 73 in a tick under two hours, Auckland were never in it as Central coasted home by eight wickets - in less than half that time - to take a richly-deserved victory.

Auckland's total was the fourth-worst in 30 years of limited-overs cricket in New Zealand and only three runs higher than their previous worst - 70 against Northern Districts at Pukekohe in the 1977-78 season.

Blair Pocock won the toss and decided to bat first, and it was all downhill from there.

The first wicket fell after just nine minutes when Adam Parore, promoted to opener, fell to the first of five good catches by wicketkeeper Bevan Griggs, playing only his second cup match.

For Griggs, it was his first dismissal at this level and gave Ewen Thompson his first wicket in his debut cup appearance after some useful efforts in the longer game.

Thompson went on to take three for 31, while Griggs, like his captain Jacob Oram and team-mate Glen Sulzberger a product of Palmerston North Boys' High, soon joined former internationals Tony Blain and Ian Smith as Central wicketkeepers to claim five dismissals in a cup match.

Determined not to be left behind in the wicket-grabbing stakes, Andrew Schwass bagged four for 14 - with three of his victims taken by Griggs - as the Auckland batting fell apart.

It was a great effort by the largely unheralded Central attack. Of the team who played Auckland in their last clash of the 1999/2000 season, only Oram was in action yesterday.

Aided by a pitch which gave only minimal movement, Thompson, Brent Hefford (who deserved better than his 0-13 from five overs), Oram and Schwass were always in command with some quick, well-directed bowling backed by positive fielding.

Lou Vincent played solidly in reaching 22 and Pocock hung around for 70 minutes for 14.

For the rest, the scorebook made miserable reading and left the selectors with some soul-searching before they name the team to face Northern Districts on the same ground tomorrow.

Central, fired-up after being forced to wait while the umpires dallied, wasted no time.

Craig Spearman smacked 34 from 24 balls and David Kelly held it together with 24 at the top of the innings.

A similar effort from the Dipak Patel-coached Stags in Invercargill against Otago tomorrow would deservedly keep them in the race for the playoffs.

Auckland Aces coach Tony Sail was at a loss in his search for a reason for his team's poor showing.

"We seem to have lost some confidence,"Sail said.

"The guys at the top of the order just haven't been doing it."