Wellington finish slow first day with the upper hand
New Zealand’s one-day king Chris Harris looked like stealing Wellington’s thunder during his innings of 70 in Canterbury’s State Championship match at Rangiora’s Dudley Park today.Scoring was always going to be slow after all the rain thrown at the country venue last week, but the Canterbury top order, Michael Papps apart, failed to come to grips with the slow pace of the pitch and it was left to Harris to resurrect the innings in his own inimitable fashion.Launching into anything in a reasonable position to be hit after coming to the wicket with Canterbury 59/3, he helped Papps advance the score to 110 before Papps, who had scored 50 off 133 balls, was out second ball after the afternoon drinks break when tickling a ball down the leg-side to wicket-keeper Chris Nevin.Seven runs later Aaron Redmond was out, caught low in the gully by Grant Donaldson for one.But after sharing a 58-run stand with Gareth Hopkins, Harris was beaten by the second new ball when also caught in the gully by Donaldson from Andrew Penn’s bowling.It was a shame for himself and for Canterbury, given his level of run scoring history at the ground. His sheer positiveness was a lesson to all other batsmen. He had four sixes and 44 runs before he hit his first four, and he also worked the singles to advance Canterbury’s score.No sooner was he out than Hopkins departed in the next over, bowled by James Franklin for 14 leaving Canterbury 175/7.Warren Wisneski and Stephen Cunis carried the score through to 187 before the rain came.Papps had earlier shown the benefits to be had from using his feet. He batted sensibly and positively to look to work the Wellington bowlers around the pitch before launching into some lovely straight drives. Once settled he started to play shots square of the wicket and he will still be lamenting his choice of shot to a ball he could well have left alone.Wellington’s bowlers were always in the best position to frustrate the batsmen. Accuracy was always going to frustrate them and at one stage during the first session runs were falling behind the number of overs bowled.Penn’s first 10 overs cost only six runs and even by the day’s end he had two for 20 from 19 overs.But the most effective of the bowlers was Franklin who had a productive spell to start the day when finally gaining Brad Doody’s wicket after a lengthy probing spell, and then immediately after lunch he had Gary Stead out leg before wicket.When the new ball was taken it was Franklin who had Hopkins also leg before wicket. He gained swing and while not bowling at express pace there were few chances for batsmen to lessen their concentration against him.Ash Turner gained his maiden first-class wicket when dismissing Redmond while Matthew Walker, who had a long spell of 18 overs and ended with one for 40.The only wicketless bowler was off-spinner Jeetan Patel. His influence on this match is not completed yet. He looks capable of having more of an impact with more wear on the pitch. There was a noticeable loop to his bowling and when getting conditions to suit, he has all the potential to cause genuine problems for batsmen.Wellington are in the box seat after the first day, and another encouraging aspect of their day had to be the briskness of their over-rate. This hasn’t always been a virtue for Wellington teams but had the game gone the full distance there was every chance they would have fallen within the required guidelines.However, once the Canterbury tail is eliminated tomorrow, the real challenge is ahead for the Wellington batsmen who, after watching the Cantabrians struggle, know they are in for a real battle to gain the first innings ascendancy.