Southland and North Otago battled through to a draw in their two-day fixture played at Centennial Park over the weekend.
North Otago made 313 for nine in the first innings before declaring half an hour before lunch on the second day. Southland gathered to its task, however, and they batted out the rest of the day using the opportunity for much needed batting practice prior to their Hawke Cup challenge in a fortnight's time.
When play was halted at 6pm Southland still had seven wickets in hand and had 228 runs on the board a the close of play.
Heavy rain on Friday after before the covers were put on the Centennial Park pitch saw play delayed one hour on the first day of play.
Southland's captain, Brian McKechnie, won the toss and decided to send North Otago into bat on a pitch which was softish on the surface but which would dry out as the day progressed. It was a pitch which offered little to either batsman or bowler at the start of play.
Southland's medium pace attack of Owen Ramsay, Geoff Osborne, and Brian McKechnie found it difficult to beat the bat with the ball not coming onto the bat runs were also hard to pick up with the result that the first session of play of 90 minutes North Otago had scored only 28 runs from the 30 overs bowled keeping all wickets intact.
However, the second session of play belonged to Southland. North Otago lost opening batsman Russell Martin with a back injury when he was on 19 but Graeme Ballantyne and Bob Wilson brought up North Otago's 50 before Ballantyne was caught behind by Southland wicket keeper Ross Murdoch off Osborne's bowling for six. Ian Laird joined Wilson but Laird went without scoring with the total at 63.
Wilson was the dominating partner at this stage and he and Graeme Johnson took the total through to 87 before Johnson was bowled by leg spinner Peter Skelt for 9, 13 runs later.
North Otago lost its fourth wicket, that of opener Wilson who off drove a ball from Skelt. Ramsay, coming around from the deep extra cover position, dived to take a brilliant catch to dismiss Wilson for 55 scored in 220 minutes and containing five fours and a six.
Chris Taylor and Alan Sandri added 32 for the firth wicket before Sandri lollied one back to Kevin Burns at mid to give an off-spinner Jim Stevenson his first wicket of the match.
This brought together Greg Martin and Taylor who survived the period prior to tea. After the break Taylor and Martin took the attack to Southland and scoring in even time or better added 94 for the sixth wicket before Martin was caught behind by Murdoch off Osborne's bowling for a merited 61 which contained eight fours and a six. Martin was at the crease for 115 minutes.
Taylor survived only another 11 runs before he had his stumps shattered by an Osborne delivery to make North Otago seven down for 237.
Russell Martin joined Barry Simpson and the pair survived through until 6.55pm when bad light forced an early conclusion to play on the first day.
Martin's was the eighth wicket to fall when, on the morning of the second day, he was simply caught by Stevenson at midwicket for 39. Trevor Robertson and Peter Simpson then featured in a fine 45 run stand for the ninth wicket before Simpson was bowled by Stevenson for 34. Simpson's innings containing six fours.
Bob Wilson finally declared the North Otago innings closed at 12.13pm obviously in the hope of picking up a Southland wicket before lunch. But it was not to be. Ross Murdoch and Kevin Burns added in fact 30 runs in almost 29 minutes prior to lunch.
The second session of play on the second day belonged to the Southland batsmen. Murdoch made nine before he was caught by Doug Brown off Trevor Robertson's bowling but he featured in an opening stand of 56 with Burns in fine fettle racing to his 50 in 84 minutes and with Terry Ward added 93 for the second wicket. Burns was caught by Peter Simpson just inside the square leg boundary off Greg Martin's bowling for 75 made in 152 minutes and containing 11 fours and 1 six.
Ward who earlier in the year had made a century in each innings for Otago Colts against New South Wales Colts here at Centennial Park started with some misgivings being dropped in the slips of successive balls from Trevor Robertson when he was only on 1.
Ward made the most of this let off and sailed through to 49 before he went shortly after Burns with the total at 150.
At tea Southland were 151 for the loss of three wickets, Ward incidentally batting for 106 minutes and hitting eight fours.
Southland added a further 57 runs in the 70 minutes after tea and going into the final 20 overs Southland required 106 runs for a first innings win.
However, the chase was never really on and Steve Harrop (34) and Neil McArthur (45) batted through the rest of the day. The Southland wickets were shared amongst Greg Martin one for 39 off 16 overs, Chris Taylor one for 53 off 27 and Trevor Robertson one for 51 off 12 overs.
Short Scorecard(s)
Representative - Hawke Cup - Zone Series
Southland vs North Otago at Centennial Park Oval, Oamaru
North Otago 313 ( G. Martin 61, C. Taylor 60, R.S. Wilson 55, R. Martin 39, P. Simpson 34, T. Roberson 24no, P. Skelt 4-69, G. Osborne 3-39, J. Stevenson 2-72 )
Southland 228-3 ( K.J. Burns 75, T. Ward 49, N. McArthur 45no, S. Harrop 34no )
No result
Full scorecard for the match