with a logo featuring a sun with a golden lustre only possible from filtering through a Western Australia dust storm

… well, that’s not really that much like a New Zealand summer.

And to give us these images this summer – this waterlogged, grey, dismal, abominable summer – it is nearly insulting.

But despite Wellington being on the receiving end, it really is heartening to see a team score over 200 in a match. And good to see Lou Vincent amongst the runs, even if only in his games against Wellington. And Guptill’s 62 off 35 was heartwarming. It would be my hope that Auckland get through to the Champions League so that Vincent and Guptill can be unleashed against the world. (Also want to see Victoria get through, so that Ross Taylor gets a run.)

In championing Auckland in this way, I suppose I have lost hope for Wellington. With 5 games still to play in the Cup, Wellington are going to have to outscore two out of Central, Otago and Auckland by 3 wins and Northern by 1 to make the final. A hard task and possibly numerically impossible. Oh well. Beating Canterbury is as good as making the finals though.

Awesome evening at the Basin on Friday. Huge crowd – frickin’ huge. Bouncy castles for the kids. Decent weather. A few sixes hit onto the bank. Lou Vincent unveiling his Mongoose and leading Auckland to a competitive score. Then Franklin bringing the game back after early wickets.

The kids were melting down a bit by the end though, so we snuck out with a couple of overs remaining, confident in a Wellington win. About a run a ball required.

Little did we know what was transpiring while we were driving home. Franklin gone two balls after we left and no firepower left in the lineup. Those early wickets really cost us.

Another victory handed over to the opposition. Wellington just can’t catch no breaks this season.

The situation is as follows: as part of the agreement to add more international matches to the tour, and thereby dropping the only scheduled warm up match, six of the Indian players, those selected for the tests but not for the limited over matches, would be allowed to play a game in the State Championship for one of the New Zealand domestic teams. However, the precedent set by withdrawing Tendulkar and Karthik from the exhibition 20-20 in Wellington has raised the problem of the fact that Canterbury, Northern Districts and Auckland all have ICL players who may play in the games that the Indians are supposed to be playing in, risking spreading their ICL cooties to the pure, innocent Indians, either as team mates or opposition. If the ICL players play, then the BCCI must withdraw their players, who will then miss their only decent warm up opportunity.

Obviously the BCCI would prefer that the ICL players be dropped (and the changing rooms fumigated). And not doubt NZC will prefer that option too. But the NZ Cricket Players’ Association is insisting, quite reasonably, that India should not be allowed to dictate who gets selected for NZ domestic teams.

No doubt there will be some contractual procedure for NZC to withdraw the ICL players, to satisfy the BCCI, and probably get the NZCPA to all in line as well. However, it is quite delicious to see the BCCI cause so much trouble for themselves by their own childishness.

Cricket at the Basin. Wgtn–Otago 20-20 by the way – Otago win by 117 runs. Excellent crowd. Sitting at midwicket behind the practice nets I couldn’t see much of the play and couldn’t see the scoreboard. So I was only ever vaguely aware of what was going on – basically, Wellington behind from ball one. But beautiful on the grass, under the sun. The bright sun bleaches the view and the wind muffles the sound, making the game seem distant. The occasional *crack* from the field, or a gasp from the crowd, but the dominant sound is the *burrr* of the canvas sightscreen vibrating violently when the wind picks up.

Otago 418 & 343/7
Auck 430/8 dec.
Match drawn

CD 523
Wgtn 376/7
Match drawn

ND 430 & 152/5 dec.
Cant. 265 & 294/8
Match drawn

Top bat: Sinclair’s 164 was the top score, but I’m disqualifying him for petulance. Instead I’ll give top bat to his team mate Bevan Griggs for his aggressive 143.
Top bowl: Suave’s mate Tarun Nethula bowled a great 4/100 innings (including a c&b, yee hah!), following up on 2/75 in the first innings.

Points table

Round 4 of the State Championship consisted of two games, while Auckland played the West Indies. CD beat Otago to go to the top of the table, despite Wgtn being in crushing form (averaging nearly 500/innings over 3 games). The innings of the week however was scored by Auckland, who swatted away the WI bowlers on a pitch that is oozing runs.

ND 310 & 198
Wgtn 520
Wgtn win by inns and 12 runs

Auck. 587/7
WI 431/7
Match drawn

Otago 357 & 281
CD 378 & 261/2
CD win by 8 wickets

Top bat: It is hard to go past Richard Jones’ double hundred, but Josh Brodie’s maiden century deserves mention. Franklin’s 160 may have helped his recall to the Black Caps.
Top bowl: Gillespie’s 8/124 match.

Points table