Partnerships provide the lifeblood of any innings and in their absence, at least in the absence of any of a red-blooded nature, Wellington batted anaemicly on the first day of their State Championship match against Auckland at the Basin Reserve today.

Wellington were all out for 238 a few minutes before stumps, at the end of a long day on which they had won the toss and batted, and in the two overs squeezed in before the close of play, Auckland had reached 3/0 in their first innings.

There were two individual contributions of substance in the Wellington innings - by Richard Jones who provided 52 of the first 83 runs but was out shortly before lunch and the same score by Grant Donaldson who endeavoured to hold the innings together through the middle and final sessions.

There was also, right at the death, a cavalier and unbeaten innings of 27 from 22 balls by Andrew Penn, who took 14 runs in an over from Tama Canning and tarnished slightly an outstanding bowling performance by the Auckland medium pacer who ended with 5-58. Andre Adams took 4-55 and the pair shared between them the nine wickets that fell to bowlers.

But the innings of Donaldson and of Jones, Wellington's captain whose decision it had been to bat on winning the toss, were compiled largely in isolation and didn't become the foundations of partnerships which could have made the total more substantial.

The largest partnership of the day was that of 39 for the second wicket between Jones and Selwyn Blackmore. Later Donaldson and Chris Nevin added 38 for the fifth wicket but the innings was littered with partnerships and with individual performances which had promising beginnings but petered out before achieving any magnitude.

Only three Wellington batsmen, including Nos 10 and 11, failed to reach double figures but after Jones' and Donaldson's half centuries the next highest scores were Penn's 27, then James Franklin's patient 21.

Running down the list, there were partnerships of 23 for the first wicket between Jones and Phil Chandler (5), 39 for the second between Jones and Blackmore (18) and 21 for the third between Donaldson and Jones. Jones had batted 125 minutes and hit four fours when he was out shortly before lunch when Wellington was 83.

The partnership between Donaldson and Rhys Morgan spanned lunch, at which Wellington were 92-3, but produced only 28 runs in 53 minutes before Morgan was out for 11. Donaldson and Nevin put on 38 and Franklin and Donaldson 26. Franklin and Matthew Walker added 29 and after brief stands of one and six, Penn and Ash Turner put on 28 in 18 minutes for the final wicket.

The partnerships were as painstaking as they were unproductive. Donaldson batted almost three hours for his 52, Franklin an hour and 44 minutes for 21, Walker 56 minutes for nine.

There were only 14 boundaries, including Penn's two sixes, sprinkled throughout an innings of 371 minutes and this on a pitch Wellington had considered ideal for batting.

It was not that Jones misread the wicket. In all appearances it should have provided and it seemed to provide consistency of pace and bounce and no alarming seam movement. The day was thickly humid - the residue of three days of record November temperatures in Wellington - and there was a hint of movement in the air for the Auckland quicks.

But the combination of accurate and aggressive bowling by Kyle Mills, Canning and Adams, of exacting spin from Mark Haslam and Brooke Walker and of energetic feeling made Wellington battle for their runs.

Canning and Adams particularly bowled well. Three of Canning's five victims were caught by wicket-keeper Reece Young who took another catch from Adams and had four catches in the innings. Adams contributed to Canning's haul by catching Franklin at second slip.

Adams bowled with penetrating accuracy and at a nagging length which created uncertainty among the Wellington batsmen. He had Jones lbw with a peach of a delivery - full pitched and swinging into middle and leg and had Matthew Walker, similarly, lbw.

What was glaringly obvious by the end of the day was the extent to which Wellington's batsmen have suffered for lack of cricket this season. The season in Wellington, which starts later than most provinces, has been wrecked by rain till recent weeks and the consequences of that lack of matchplay was obvious in the lack of timing and confidence shown by the Wellington players.

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