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Two in a row for Auck

Sunday, March 23 2003

Auckland has successfully defended the State Championship despite losing to Northern Districts in the last round. Wellington was the only team capable of moving ahead of Auckland, but they too faultered at the hands of Otago.

Auckland last did the double in 1994/95 and 1995/96. Following that Canterbury achieved the same feat. Since then, only Otago has not won the championship.

Auckland completely dominated with the bat this season with three of their batsmen on the top six scoring list, with Tim McIntosh the highest run scorer in the competition with 820 runs. Horne nd Nicol were the other two on the list with 671 and 664 respectively.

Tama Canning was the leading wicket taker in the competition with 46. He was the only Auckland bowler to feature on the top six list.

One of the more pleasing aspects of this years competition was the way the young talent excelled. Featured on the top ten batting list are Jamie How, Nick Horsley, Peter Fulton and Rob Nicol. Particularly special was Peter Fulton's triple century.

A question that will be raised is of the standard of the cricket with the international players away at the World Cup. We will never know if it would have stopped these young players excelling, so we cannot hold it against them.

There is definitely some great talent developing in New Zealand, perhaps the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka will be a good testing ground to see where they are at. They deserve a chance because they couldn't have done much more to prove to the selectors that they are worthy.

Final Points Roundup:
Auckland 34, Wellington 31, Otago 26, Northern Districts 22, Central Districts 22, Canterbury 16.

Stats:

Batting:
Most runs:
Tim McIntosh (Auck) 820
Craig Cumming (Otago) 751
Richard Jones (Well) 726

Best average (at least 8 innings):
Tim McIntosh (Auck) 58.57
Matthew Hart (ND) 54.60
Peter Fulton (Cant) 52.33

Bowling :
Most wickets:
Tama Canning (Auck) 46
Matthew Walker (Well) 45
Shane O'Connor (Otago) 42

Best averages (at least 200 overs):
Matthew Walker (Well) 18.00
Andrew Penn (CD) 18.03
Ian O'Brien (Well) 18.55

Best Economy (at least 200 overs):
Matthew Walker (Well) 2.01
Brent Hefford (CD) 2.02
Shane O'Connor (Otago) 2.09

Wicket Keeping:
Most dismissals:
Reece Young (Auck) 35
Chris Nevin (Well) 32
Robbie Hart (ND) 23

Cricketweb Batsman of the Season: Tim McIntosh
Cricketweb Bowler of the Season: Matthew Walker





Posted by Kim