da realsbet： Otago answered several of their new coach’s calls when they outplayedAuckland towin their Shell Trophy cricket match at Eden Park today with six wicketsand a dayto spare
Don Cameron15-Dec-2000Otago answered several of their new coach’s calls when they outplayedAuckland towin their Shell Trophy cricket match at Eden Park today with six wicketsand a dayto spare.Otago, 157 ahead of Auckland on the first innings, stopped the morestubborn Auckland second innings at 201 late this afternoon, andcantered homewith 85 for four wickets, Matthew Horne leading the way with 50 not out.Dennis Aberhart, the burly master-mind of so many past Canterbury teamsis having his first season with Otago, and on today’s evidence his drillis producingthe right results.One of Aberhart’s aims it to get a winning habit in the Otago side.Theystarted badly in their first two games, against Central Districts andWellington.”Then we got a boost from the defeat of Wellington in the Shell Cupone-dayer and this win against Auckland makes it two in a row, and Otagodo notdo that very often.”Aberhart insists that his players develop a good work ethic, they playtosupport each other, and they try and do the basics properly.The Otago men worked very closely to those plans as they consistentlyout-played Auckland throughout most of the three days. Generally theirbowlersworked to an accurate line, although Aberhart was quick to point outthey were offcourse on the first morning when the new ball was sent zooming all overthe place.Thereafter the Otago medium-fast men kept fairly steady pressure on theerratic Auckland batsmen, with Paul Wiseman probing for other chinks inthe thinAuckland armour with his off-spin.It says much for the consistent work of the Otago bowlers, backed bycrispand energetic fielding, that no Aucklander could score 50 or over in anyof the 22innings. In fact only two Auckland batsmen, Richard King and Dion Nash(bothwho learned some or much of their early cricket skills in Dunedin) couldscore 30 ormore.King scored 34 and 49, Nash 32 and 49, and it said much for theconsistentquality of the Otago bowling that even these two batsmen seldom lookedinconfident or commanding mood.It may be the Auckland batting style on their home Eden Park No 2ground,or a quirk in the umpiring of two senior men, Barry Frost and DougCowie, butAuckland suffered from a lop-sided lbw count.\ No fewer than eight Aucklanders — five in the first innings, three inthesecond — were out leg-before, while Auckland won their only lbw appealhalfwaythrough Otago’s modest chase for victory this evening.The Otago quicker bowlers were consistent but not quite as dominatingasthat lbw statistic would suggest. Neither did the pitch contain anyspecial vices,although it was to Otago’s advantage that their skipper Matt Horne optedto bowlfirst.But the one-sided lbw count suggested, with more truth, that theAucklanders lacked concentration over longish periods, and that a reallygoodOtago delivery always had a chance to get past a lazy batting stroke.The Otago cricketers are not yet world-beaters. But on the Eden Parkevidence they are certainly not lazy about their cricket.