Cricket: Wickets tumble at Blenheim

A deluge of wickets in Blenheim yesterday should ensure an early end to the match between Central Districts and Northern Districts today.

Sixteen wickets tumbled on the second day, leaving Central holding a 168-run advantage with one wicket remaining at stumps halfway through the four-day match.

Central collected two first innings points after they dismissed Northern for 160, 21 short of their first innings total.

Resuming at 84 for three, Scott Styris and Hamish Marshall guided the Northerners through to 119 before the wicket avalanche started.

Northern lost wickets regularly, with no one able to combat medium pacer Andrew Schwass.

Schwass added the scalps of Styris, Marshall, Robbie Hart, Graham Aldridge and Ian Butler to his pair of top-order wickets to give him impressive figures of seven for 36 from 17 overs.

Once Schwass collected Marshall as his third victim, Grant Bradburn, Joseph Yovich, Styris and Hart quickly followed with only 11 more runs on the board.

The Northern bowling arsenal also proved difficult to handle on an uncharacteristically bouncy wicket, reducing the home side to 147 for nine at the close.

Central were unable to capitalise on the bowling of Schwass, with their top and middle order faltering on a hot and humid day.

Openers David Kelly and Richard Scragg started solidly to add 41, but they were eventually the only two batsmen among the top seven to make double figures.

Schwass came to the rescue with 22, while Michael Mason (35) and Lance Hamilton (14) irritated Northern with an unbroken 10th-wicket stand of 38 in 15 overs.

* Michael Papps finally breached the 100-run barrier in style for Canterbury against Otago in Christchurch yesterday.

Before his remarkable 158 not out, Papps had six times scored 50 or more but never gone further than the 84 made against Otago at the same ground two seasons ago.

Papps not only achieved the milestone, but the compact 22-year-old went well beyond with an innings of controlled strokeplay.

He batted the equivalent of a day, 456 minutes from No 3, and was undefeated when the Canterbury innings ended at 315.

Thanks largely to Papps, who scored half of Canterbury's runs, and the ever-consistent Chris Harris (71), Canterbury took not only first innings points, but also forged a 101-run first innings lead which Otago had whittled 30 off without loss by stumps.

The closest Papps came to giving a chance was when he clipped a ball through gully, but it sped to the boundary to raise the century.

* Rain prevented any play on the second day of the Wellington-Auckland match. Wellington scored 238 batting first on the opening day and Auckland were 3-0 at stumps.

- NZPA