Wellington have won a tight match against Canterbury in the Provincial A tournament being held in Lincoln.
After a bad start Canterbury managed to set 249 for victory, but Wellington were up to the challenge as they finished the chase with three wickets and five balls to spare.
Canterbury were put into bat by Wellington and lost two early wickets.
Opener Keryn Ambler and number four Henry Nicholls then put on a crucial partnership and took Canterbury to three for 93, before Ambler was dismissed on 38. Nicholls continued to push the ball around for the home side before he was caught in the 31st over for 42.
The run-rate however was a problem and since wickets fell regularly, it started to look doubtful that Canterbury was going to set a challenging total.
Keeper David Fulton was the next one to make a valuable contribution as he helped out with a timely contribution of 42 before being dismissed on the last ball of the innings.
His partner in crime during the final overs was a surprise though. Number nine Matt McEwan top scored for his team as made an 43 not out and lifted Canterbury to 248 for eight at the end of 50 overs.
Wellington started strongly in their reply thanks to ex-Canterbury player Michael Papps. Papps looked to anchor the innings as he played a sensible innings of 58 from 111 balls. He found help from co-opener Josh Brodie to take Wellington to 51 without loss.
Tom Blundell replaced Brodie when he was on his way and quickly found his feet at the crease. He top scored for Wellington with 60 from 59 deliveries to put his side in a powerful position.
However they needed one more decent score to cement victory and it never really came.
What did come was a number of starts from middle order players like Mark Houghton (29) and Niranjan Naguleswaran (25*).
The latter managed to keep cool under a substantial amount of pressure to see Wellington to a three wicket victory with five balls to spare.
It was a well timed chase by Wellington, but Canterbury will be disappointed they couldn’t get up in front of their home fans.
