Canning six seals dramatic victory for Auckland

A slogged six that cleared the head of Warren Wisneski at mid-on from man of the match Tama Canning gave Auckland victory with two balls to spare in a dramatic second round Shell Cup encounter.

Canning's 25 not out from 15 balls proved decisive after a superb half-century from Lou Vincent had put Auckland in a winning position.

In a match that was in the balance until the final ball Canning's cavalier innings, together with his career best four-wicket haul in the Canterbury innings, proved to be the difference between the two sides.

Auckland won the toss and asked Canterbury to bat, but in doing so the Aces gifted Canterbury the best batting conditions of the match on a pitch that slowed in pace as the match wore on.

At 84/0 after 15 overs Canterbury would have been looking for one of its openers, Brad Doody or Mark Hastings, to bat through and guide the defending champions to a score in excess of 280.

But as the pitch appeared to slow up the Aces, bowling depth came to the fore, with Canning, Andre Adams, Mark Haslam and Chris Drum combining to deny Canterbury a boundary between the 18th and 37th overs. Chris Harris finally broke the drought with a pull shot for six of Andre Adams.

Umpire Brent Bowden's reluctance to give decisions again came to the fore with the dismissal of Harris. A Chris Drum delivery appeared to take a substantial deflection as Harris played away from his body and a nick was clearly audible from the grandstand. The Auckland players gathered mid-pitch to congratulate Drum but to their amazement Bowden declined to send Harris packing. Both Harris and the fielders stood their ground, prompting Bowden to confer with South African umpire Brian Jerling at square leg. Jerling immediately indicated he thought it was a dismissal and Bowden finally gave Harris a nod.

Debate about Bowden tends to centre on whether his clownish antics are good for the image of the game, but scrutiny of his umpiring would reveal a man hesitant to make a decision on even the most obvious of dismissals.

Canning's first spell of seven overs, 2/19 had been crucial in Auckland choking back the Canterbury run-rate and he struck again with the first ball of his second spell, having Gary Stead caught by cover sweeper Richard Morgan for 21, in the 41st over.

At lunch Canterbury coach Gary MacDonald said the failure of either Harris or Stead to bat on after getting starts, had resulted in score 20-30 runs less than he would have liked. However, he believed his side's score of 228 was defendable.

Auckland began its chase in positive fashion, debutant Tim McIntosh, fresh from his maiden first-class century, combined with a more circumspect Aaron Barnes for a century opening stand. Both batsmen were dismissed soon after making their half-centuries, McIntosh unfortunately run out when he looked to have another hundred at his mercy.

Auckland continued to lose wickets at regular intervals and the run-rate climbed above seven. Carl Anderson bowled a tight spell, as did Shane Bond, but Harris bowled too many bad balls to be able to maintain the pressure from his end.

Lou Vincent steadied the Auckland innings with an intelligent run a ball half-century. But when Bond bowled Vincent with the last ball of the penultimate over Auckland still required six for victory.

Three good balls from Geoff Allot conceded only two runs, leaving the match in the balance. However the final act of the game was left to its star performer, Tama Canning, who just got under an Allot attempted Yorker enough to clear the desperately leaping Wisneski.