David Sewell

Captain Jarrod Waldron continued his batting blitzkrieg at the weekend but could not prevent the North Otago senior cricket side from dropping their second match on first innings points.

Waldron, having already scored two centuries in two Hawke Cup southern zone matches, put up an unbeaten innings of 79 and 73 in North Otago's first innings loss to Otago Country at Alexandra's Molyneux Park.

But despite the first innings loss, North otago will take the southern zone lead into the Christmas break, sitting on 12 points - six ahead of both Southland and Otago Country.

The two not outs upped the 25-year-old captain's batting average from 71.00 to 115.00 with 460 runs in six innings. Waldron also finished the match with bowling figures of 6-83 from 24.3 overs.

"Jarrod's form has been nothing but heroic," North Otago manager Mark Patterson said. "He's bowling well he's batting with class and determination and he's captaining well too. He's doing everything to get us over the line but we just don't have enough other guys contributing."

Waldron's white-hot batting form has been the deodorant to cover up the odour of more average batting performances this season. No other player has scored above 20 at the weekend, with extras the second-top scorer in both innings, while North Otago has only five other scores of 30-plus in six innings.

North Otago were travelling well late on the first day before a six over spell from Otago Country's Brendon Domigan changed the outcome.

Domigan had figures of 0-9 from his first six overs bowling medium pace, then returned to bowl off-spin on a tired and turning wicket, and took 4-26 in his next six overs, including four wickets in four overs. He then took the last North Otago wicket with 5-27 and the match with nine wickets after taking 4-54 in the second innings.

That crashed North Otago from 128-4 to 149-9 in a disastrous final half-hours play.

"We just had half-an-hour of carnage, which coincided with them bringing on a spinner, and the it was a house of cards," Patterson said. "There was some pressure, guys around the bat, and some of our guys weren't sure how they should bat.

With a 48-run lead, Otago Country then took advantage of North Otago's fast-to-medium bowling attack on Sunday morning, striking 255-9 declared for a lead of 303 runs. With a little under three-and-a-half hours to play, North Otago were reduced to batting out the overs to avoid an outright loss.

"We went from probably in the commanding position to really being on the back foot and we were never able to come back from that."

While Domigan changed the match outcome, wicketkeeper-batsman James Pyle put Otago Country in position to capitalise with innings of 68 and 94, while Corey Blair scored a first innings half-century.

Chris Ware, North Otago's 15-year-old debutant, took 3-42 in the first innings, while James Cutt claimed 3-80 with his off-spin and David Sewell and Paul Odell each took two wickets in the home sides second innings.

North Otago's chances of maintaining the southern zone number one spot and earning a place in the South Island playoff for a Hawke Cup challenge rest on gaining at minimum first innings points in their return match against Otago Country on January 12-13 in Oamaru, then have Southland and Otago Country spilt their two matches, without outright results.

Short Scorecard(s)

Representative - Hawke Cup - Zone Series

North Otago vs Otago Country at Molyneux Park, Alexandra
Otago Country 206 ( J. Pyle 68, C. Blair 53, E. Standfield 21no, J.M. Waldron 5-42, C.J. Ware 3-42 ) & 255-9dec ( J. Pyle 94, B.J. Domigan 52, Andrew 33, J.R. Cutt 3-80, P.M. Odell 2-22, D.G. Sewell 2-50 )
North Otago 158 ( J.M. Waldron 79no, R.L. Smith 17, N.R. Mitchell 12, Dommigan 5-27, Finch 3-57, Standfield 2-20 ) & 149-6 ( J.M. Waldron 73no, G. Paterson 16, N.R. Mitchell 11, Domigan 4-54 )
First innings win to Otago Country

Player Pages:
James Cutt | Paul Odell | David Sewell | Jarrod Waldron | Chris Ware |

Team Pages:
North Otago 2007-2008 |