North Otago held most of the honours after two rain affected days ruled out a decision in the Hawke Cup cricket match at Ashburton during the weekend.
But Ashburton was given little chance to mount a real challenge. North Otago batted virtually through Saturday in ideal conditions on an easy wicket.
Ashburton had its innings disrupted yesterday because of rain, which relayed the start, affected the speed of both the wicket and outfield and allowed the visitors to have a tighter ring of fieldsmen than usual. Even though it finished with six wickets for 250, Ashburton scored very few boundaries on the slow outfield.
It did not show enough to suggest it could have put up a realistic challenge. Peter Thomas and Brian Isherwood scored half-centuries. Thomas played a sheet anchor role, but went down to an uncharacteristically loose shot, while Isherwood hit the loose ball very hard.
Isherwood and the captain Brian Sampson, saved the day for Ashburton after Chris Taylor took two quick wickets without runs. The batsmen played balls on merit and possibly helped some of the visitors to register unusually good figures for the day.
North Otago won the toss and elected to bat. The decision was sound, as the easy-paced pitch gave Ashburton's bowlers little help.
The early batsmen in North Otago's innings laid a firm foundation for the team's big score. But it was the sixth wicket partnership of 108 by Graham Johnson and Chris Taylor which was the high point of the day.
The pair took North Otago's score from 193 for five, to 301. Their 108 runs created a new North Otago first class record for the sixth wicket; the previous highest stand was 94.
Johnson scored 57 and Taylor was the top scorer with 66 not out.
The opening pair, Bob Wilson and Ian Pitches, put on 75 and Wilson and Stewart Blakeley added another 67 for the second wicket.
Ashburton's fieldsmen missed several chances which could have helped the team get a break through. The innings was trying for the Ashburton bowlers. The most successful was Richard Isherwood with three wickets.
Ashburton's openers, Ray Beaven and Peter Thomas had put on 12 runs by the close of play on Saturday.
Short Scorecard(s)
Representative - Hawke Cup - Zone Series
North Otago vs Ashburton County at Ashburton Domain Oval, Ashburton
North Otago 318 ( R.S. Wilson 67, C. Taylor 66no, G. Johnson 57, S.J. Blakely 42, I. Pitches 35, G.J. Smith 14, G.N. Johnstone 12, R. Isherwood 3-33, Drennan 2-61 )
Ashburton County 205-6 ( B.P. Isherwood 58, P.O. Thomas 50, B.V. Sampson 28, M. Hansen 20, R.L. Beaven 19, R.S. Isherwood 17, C. Taylor 2-39, K. Thickett 2-74 )
No result
Full scorecard for the match