Cricket: Eden Park oval on the outer

Gareth Hopkins (L) and Rob Nicol prepare to take to the outer oval for the last time yesterday. Photo / Kenny Rodger

Where did an Aucklander score a double-century for and against his province? It's the same place where a batsman earned nine runs for one shot without the ball crossing the boundary.

The answer is the Eden Park outer oval, which yesterday hosted its last first-class match for at least a couple of years while construction advances for the rugby World Cup.

Auckland will take its domestic fixtures to a revamped Colin Maiden Park in Glen Innes where a new block is being developed. The main Eden Park stadium should be ready for international one-day fixtures by next March.

When development is complete, tests could return to the main oval but a swept-up outer oval may be preferred for that role.

The outer oval's last game for a while finished tamely yesterday as Auckland settled for a first-innings win over Central Districts ahead of the State Championship final in Christchurch next week.

Mathew Sinclair was 131 not out in CD's 318 in reply to Auckland's 662 for five. Auckland opted to bat again and were 198 for three with Rob Nicol scoring the 18th first-class century of the season on the ground with a six that ended play.

Spectators had plenty of time to recall the best days of the outer oval, which for many years hosted a couple of club games of rugby or cricket every Saturday. When first-class cricket arrived in January 1976, the familiar names of Terry Jarvis with 76 and Mark Burgess with 67 featured on the score sheet.

Among the many other memorable feats on the ground:

- Aucklander Matt Horne, on hand yesterday as assistant Auckland coach, scored 241 for Otago in 1998 and 118 and 209 not out for Auckland in 2004. Three current Auckland players, Tim McIntosh, Richard Jones and Jeet Raval, have scored double-hundreds.

- An Auckland fielder contributed nine runs for the opposition when he chased from close-in to the boundary to save a four only to hit his hat with his return throw as the batsmen went for their fourth run. Five-run penalty.

- Dipak Patel not only took 10 wickets against Northern Districts in 1991, he also scored 204 off 155 balls with 12 sixes. Matthew Maynard scored a century in each innings for ND in the same three-day game.

- Bowlers also had their days. Willie Watson took seven wickets in an innings against CD in 1989 and John Bracewell took seven against ND in 1987.

- One-day cricket brought plenty of big hitting. But nobody beat the 170 Brendon McCullum scored off 108 balls to win the final for Otago last season.

- There was an exotic touch to the closing stages yesterday. Central coach Dermot Reeve, 47 today, acted as replacement fielder and took a slip catch disallowed by the umpire.