Bell resists Canterbury

Canterbury took a stranglehold of their State Championship match against Wellington. It would take the escape effort of the season for Wellington to get out of the trouble they are in.

Canterbury batted on to amass 499 for 8 before Chris Cairns, the Canterbury captain, made the declaration. A fine 145-run partnership between Paul Wiseman, the nightwatchman, and Chris Harris frustrated the Wellington bowlers further during the morning session. Wiseman scored 75 before he fell to James Franklin's bowling while Harris was trapped leg before wicket to Franklin for 65.

The rest of the innings petered out very quickly and Franklin had some reward for 35.4 overs of work by ending with 3 for 146. Andrew Penn took 2 for 87 and Matthew Walker 2 for 93.

Wellington looked set to make a competitive response as international openers Matthew Bell and Richard Jones settled in for the long haul. However, Richard Jones got a good ball from Chris Martin and was dismissed for 20, after 71 minutes of batting, when the score was 57. Stephen Fleming, who is using the match as a fitness test before next week's Test against Pakistan, was out for two, falling victim to Cairns' bowling.

The only Wellington defiance came from Bell, who scored 75, before he was given out to a bat-pad catch off Wiseman's bowling. Wiseman also picked up the wickets of Grant Donaldson and Franklin to end the day with 3 for 17 from 11 overs.