A phenomenal collapse woke up the sleepy spectators in this early New Year Shell Trophy match between Canterbury and Central Districts.

Canterbury lost five top order wickets in just eight scoreless deliveries, with both CD bowlers Michael Mason and Gareth West simultaneously on a hat-trick. They had taken consecutive wickets with the final balls of each of their fifth overs to be in this extremely unusual situation.

Canterbury eventually struggled to a below par 220, Mason taking his second five wicket bag of the season (5-71) and West grabbing a career best 4-62.

Gary Stead saw off hat-trick balls from each of the pacemen and went on to make a cultured 91 in 173 balls, to give the Black Cap selectors yet another reminder of his class.

Golden ducks from Jarrod Englefield and Aaron Redmond, two recent New Zealand 'A' representatives, implied national coach David Trist could cease scouring the country for new players.

Later, Chris Martin struck early for Canterbury to regain some parity. David Kelly was the man to go, out lbw for a duck playing no shot in just the second over of CD's reply. Craig Spearman also soon fell, caught behind by Hopkins for 21 in Martin's fifth over. His 26 ball effort included a majestic hooked six off the New Zealand strike bowler.

CD ended on 88-2 after 26 overs, 132 behind, with Mathew Sinclair untroubled on 43 and 458-run English import Ben Smith on 20. They added their first 50 off 70 balls in just 45 minutes.

Earlier, on the resumption of first-class cricket in Christchurch after the holidays, Canterbury sensationally collapsed to 13 for six to the CD opening bowlers, hostile speedster Mason and rhythmic left-armer West.

Central coach, former New Zealand star Dipak Patel, said "We had a dream start. We bowled very well and deserved the rewards we got. Then two batsmen (Stead and Anderson) played well on a good wicket. Overall it was a very good day for us."

Tomorrow CD will "hope to bat the whole day out," to be in "an ideal position."

In Stead, the selectors will find the maturity needed in the New Zealand's recent international disappointments ready made.

A 137-run eighth wicket partnership with Carl Anderson enabled the captain to rescue Canterbury from what could have been a suicidally low total. It was a record stand against CD, beating Mark Priest and Richard Petrie's 87 at Lancaster Park in 1989/90.

Anderson went on to make a career best 63, before shouldering arms once too often against Mason, shortly after tea.

It was on a pitch described by groundsman Gerald Price as "excellent," with "more pace and bounce than before Christmas," that Canterbury lost six wickets in 15 minutes of mayhem to the new ball.

The 14 ball sequence further reminded Cantabrians that their first choice middle order was either unavailable (Astle and McMillan), or injured (Harris and Cairns). This put Stead's 391 first-class runs this season at almost 55 an innings into an even better light.

However, the main event of the day's play was undoubtedly the five wickets in eight balls and simultaneous hat-trick opportunities of Mason and West.

"A strange one, very strange," concluded satisfied CD coach Patel.

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