Both the Auckland and Otago sides probably watched their State Shield one-day cricket hopes being washed down the drain at Eden Park Outer Oval today

Don Cameron18-Jan-2002Both the Auckland and Otago sides probably watched their State Shield one-day cricket hopes being washed down the drain at Eden Park Outer Oval today.The game started 30 minutes late under lowering skies, and was finished at 4.51pm when yet another dose of Auckland’s wet summer left the game as a damp no-result.This meant two points for both teams, which meant Otago went up to 12 points and Auckland to 10, still in the second half of the ladder and drifting further and further behind the three front-runners – and likely play-off teams – Wellington, Northern Districts and Canterbury.Otago would have every reason to be twice as annoyed by the sudden end, for they had had their best one-day innings of the season at 275 whereas Auckland had scored 67 for three wickets from 13.5 overs – and the odds were very much on an Otago win if the game had run its full course.Glenn Turner, the Otago coach, spoke before the game of the steady improvement of his team, especially when they realised that teamwork and consistent effort were essential assets of a successful team.Within an hour or so Turner’s men were showing they had learned their lessons. They lost Andrew Hore at 32 and Craig Cumming at 35 as Chris Drum and Tama Canning extracted some life and movement with the new ball.But from that point onward the Otago men settled comfortably and confidently into the Turner plan. Robbie Lawson, the slim opening batsman, showed amazing power, especially when he was driving, in his 49 from 88 balls.Lawson was involved in a 49-run stand for the third wicket with Chris Gaffaney, and then 42 for the fourth wicket with Craig Pryor.This carried Otago to 126 for four wickets after 28.5 overs, and to the critical point of the innings. Recently Otago have reached such a level of apparent comfort, but then let the chance of a big score slip away, and with it the winning initiative.This time Pryor, not averse to showing off his form to his old Auckland team-mates, and Lee Germon, relishing his first feel of batting confidence for the season, used the position to launch a winning effort.Between the 29th and 44th overs Pryor (91) and Germon (52) scored 104 for the fifth wicket in a little over an hour. It was magical batting, Pryor starting quietly, Germon opening with a flurry of boundaries. The first 50 of their stand came in 49 balls, the second 50 took only 34 balls.The Auckland bowlers took on the roles of spectators as Germon and Pryor kept the runs flooding in, with strong drives and clever use of the short side boundary on the Sandringham Road side of the ground.Germon was first to go at 230 for six, skying a catch from Brooke Walker which Terry Crabb caught. Germon had scored his 52 from 51 balls, with seven fours and had showed sparkling stroke play.Then it became a matter whether Pryor could race to his century as the overs, and partners, began to disappear. He was nine runs short with 13 balls to go when he launched into a quite magnificent slog-sweep at a ball from Drum.The ball went from the middle of the bat on a low, fast arc and it was a toss-up whether it would carry over the line for a six, or bounce away for a four. Instead Llorne Howell sprinted into the line of the ball and dived for a magnificent catch perhaps a half-metre from the ground.It was a marvellous catch, a fitting end, really, to Pryor’s superbly stylish innings which had five fours, four sixes and any number of classically designed drives.Amid the flow of runs Canning kept afloat with three wickets for 50, and Drum had a wicket at the start, middle and end of the innings at the very reasonable cost of 36 runs.The unlikely prospect of Auckland scoring 276 to win with the light likely to fade diminished further quite quickly. Matt Horne, Auckland’s star batsman this summer, was cleverly caught by Germon from James McMillan’s bowling before he had scored.Howell, a heavy scorer for Auckland in their last two games was second out at 48 after a hearty innings of 25. Crabb had become McMillan’s third victim (for 30 runs) when he was out at 54, and Auckland scrambled along to 67 before the rain had the final say.