Wellington in danger of letting title chances slip

Wellington slid inexorably towards defeat, an outright loss with far-reaching consequences, on the third day of their State Championship match against Central Districts at McLean Park today.

Central established a 320-run lead when it reached 281 in its second innings and by stumps on this third day, Wellington was 71/4 in its second innings, almost 250 runs from victory with only six wickets in hand.

The match was all but Central's when stumps were drawn with a day remaining. Tomorrow, on its final day, they need only mop up the Wellington tail to take a win which might well lift them to within one point of the top of the Championship table with only one round to play. Their status depends on the outcome of the match, in progress, between Canterbury and Auckland.

Central had established a 38-run first innings lead when they dimissed Wellington on the second day of 180 - in reply to their 218 - achieved when they had batted first on losing the toss.

By stumps on the second day, Central had enlarged their lead to 152 and were 114/3 - well in charge of the match with seven second innings wickets in hand.

They went on today to 281 in 109 overs and by the end their overall lead was 319 and Wellington had largely been played out of the match.

Central owed its dominance to the innings on the second day of Mathew Sinclair, who made 41, but more particularly to the innings today of Ben Smith who went on from 30 overnight to 64, to Jacob Oram who made 42 and to Andrew Schwass who made 42.

Wellington needed to run through the Central second innings quickly today to take charge of the match but they were unable to do so. They gained Glen Sulzberger's wicket when Central was 163/4 and when Sulzberger, with Smith, had added 60 for the third wicket after Sinclair's dimissal at 103.

Smith, Oram and Schwass built on a solid platform. They took Central to 149/7, then 213/8 when Michael Mason was out. Central was 214/9 when Brent Hefford fell and 231 when Schwass was out - the last man to fall for the second time in succesive innings.

Wellington needed a dominating opening partnership to force their way back into the match, trailing as they did by more than 320 runs.

They were quickly in trouble. Chris Nevin - suffering from a broken toe and opening the innings in an unuusal step - was out for 21 when they were 37. There followed a cavalcade of wicketfalls.

Matthew Bell was out when Wellington was 37, Richard Jones when they were 46 and Luke Woodcock when they were 48. Woodcock had taken three catches as substitute keeper during Central's second innings.

Grant Donaldson, on 11, and Leighton Morgan, on 12, were not out when stumps were draw and Wellington was 71/4 but the only hope of victory seemed to lie with Central who will attempt to wrap up Wellington's innings on the final day tomorrow.