Canterbury have crumbled in the final overs to lose a close match against Central Districts in the Provincial A tournament.
Chasing 264 for victory Canterbury were in a dominant position for much of the second innings, but lost late wickets to hand Central a seven run win.
Canterbury decided to bowl first and picked up both openers early to reduce Central to 29 for two.
Will Young (42) and Greg Todd (41) then went into recovery mode for their side and added 71 for the third wicket.
In next was Central’s top scorer, BJ Barnett.
Barnett stayed until close to the end of the innings and made 69 from 55 deliveries. His stint at the crease helped Central to post a very challenging total of 263. In the process they had lost nine wickets.
The Canterbury bowling performance lacked the killer instinct at times in the innings, but the stand out was Ed Nutall who collected figures of four for 48 from 10 overs.
In reply Canterbury got off to the perfect start as openers Joel Abraham and Keryn Ambler put on 107 for the first wicket.
Ambler was the first to go for 53 and Abraham was the next wicket to be lost, out for 68. Canterbury had lost their momentum and needed two new batsmen to keep their chase on track.
There were a couple of starts made, but the next batsman to really put the pressure back on Central was Henry Nicholls.
Nicholls has been in fine touch the last few games and looked to be carrying Canterbury to victory, before he was bowled on 55 after 47.1 overs.
Nobody could carry on where he left off and with 19 runs needed off the final over for victory it was never going to happen.
In the end Central won by seven runs and held Canterbury to 256 for eight after 50 overs.
