Drum-Walker act makes a mess of Canterbury

Auckland ripped through Canterbury today on the third day of their State Championship match at Eden Park as the visitors appeared to forget that the primary aim of batting is to score runs.

Ninety-four was the paltry return from their first innings as Chris Drum attacked from one end and Brooke Walker spun a stifling web around the batsmen at the other.

The Canterbury opener Shanan Stewart's 27 was the only score past 20 as the Canterbury batsmen appeared to be following the patient example set yesterday by the young Aucklanders Reece Young and Rob Nicol. The problem for the Canterbury batsmen was their failure to find the loose balls to punish while losing wickets regularly.

Drum, with pace and bounce, troubled all the batsmen, a testament to his accuracy being the three lbws and the one bowled that went towards his five-wicket bag. He finished with five for 22 from 17 overs. To Walker, the batsmen concentrated on defending, the few attacking shots they offered bringing about their demise. The leg spinner ended with four for 10 from 15 overs.

The Canterbury innings had struggled to 79/5 - it fell away completely from there, the last five batsmen including the injured Warren Wisneski contributing just 15 runs.

Forced to follow on 178 behind, the innings started in similar vein, Jarrod Englefield's stay less than four overs, adding just three to his first-innings eight when the score was five.

However, Stewart (35) and Robbie Frew (9) saw them safely through to 49/1 at stumps, still requiring 129 to make Auckland bat again.

The highlight of the morning session was the completion of a 150-run partnership by Young (86) and Nicol (74). In the process they removed the long-standing eighth wicket Auckland record against Canterbury of Verdun Scott and Jim Blandford. Their 143 had stood since the 1939/40 season.

However, most of the work for that had been done yesterday. They added just 14 in the morning session before Young gave Gareth Hopkins his fourth catch behind the stumps, this time off Stephen Cunis. The partnership ended at 153, leaving Auckland 258/8.

There was long enough for Nicol to go to 74, his highest first-class score, and for Hopkins to collect his fifth catch of the innings as Auckland ended on 272.

The wickets were shared, Chris Martin (three for 67 from 32), Cunis (three for 66 from 31) and Ryan Burson (three for 63 from 27.4) ending with remarkably similar figures.

Tomorrow Canterbury will need considerably more application than that shown in the first innings to rescue this one.