A solid batting effort was the basis for a first innings win to North Otago in their two-day Hawke Cup cricket clash with Central Otago at Centennial Park during the weekend.

Player-coach Keith Gardner said today the bowlers had been "doing a good job" in recent representative matches but the batting had been the team's weakness and it needed to improve. The effort at the crease in the two of the previous one-day matches and the two innings in the weekend had shown it could do just that.

Rain caused a delayed start to the game at 4pm on Saturday. Central Otago won the toss and asked North Otago to bat first on a pitch which had some damp pitches and was surrounded by a slow outfield.

Scoring was slow at first, but North Otago got through to 116 for three, thanks to a good effort by Duncan Drew and Mark Wilson, who were still at the crease at the close of play at 7.30pm.

North Otago attempted to pick up the pace yesterday to leave time for an outright win, but that proved a difficult task and wickets fell at regular intervals. They were all out for 190 in two hours, Duncan Drew top scoring with 55. He was backed up by Mark Wilson (22) and Chris Cunningham (17).

For Central Otago, Jon Conlon took three for 32 of 11 overs, David Webb two for 34 off 21 and Michael Mackenzie two for 42 of 25.

North Otago's left arm seam bowlers David Sewell and Neil Rushton opened well, with Rushton in particular, working the ball in the air both ways and causing problems for all the batsmen. Consequently Central Otago found runs difficult to come by and declared at tea with their score 131 for nine, conceding North Otago the first innings lead.

The best of the Central Otago batsmen was Lindsay Breen, who scored 30, while for North Otago, Sewell took three for 36 of 19 overs, Rushton snared three for 41 of 16 and seam bowler Craig Wilson took three for 12 off five overs.

North Otago then batted out the last 90 minutes of the game, scoring 50 runs.

"The team did well. It was good to see a good solid effort with the bat and that augurs well for the next two games in the series," Gardner said.

North Otago will play Dunedin Metropolitan at Centennial Park on January 22 and 23 before traveling to Invercargill to play Southland on January 29 and 30.

Short Scorecard(s)

Representative - Hawke Cup - Zone Series

Central Otago vs North Otago at Centennial Park Oval, Oamaru
North Otago 190 ( D.J. Drew 55, M. Wilson 22, C.K. Cunningham 17, R. Rankin 13, K. Gardiner 12, G.R. Cameron 11, Conlan 3-32, MacKenzie 3-48, Webb 2-34 ) & 50-2 ( K. Gardiner 11no, C.K. Cunningham 11 )
Central Otago 131-9dec ( L. Breen 30, D. Smith 22, B. Domigan 21, A. Wilson 17, M. MacKenzie 12, C. Wilson 3-12, D.G. Sewell 3-36, N.W. Rushton 3-41 )
First innings win to North Otago
Full scorecard for the match