Canterbury assumed a surprising, but deserved, 178-run lead over Wellington in their State Championship match at Rangiora's Dudley Park today.

Wellington was dismissed for 126 in 51.3 overs when replying to Canterbury's 242.

By stumps on day two with a first innings lead of 116, Canterbury had reached 62/4, not as comfortable as it would have hoped as two quick wickets fell just before the end.

The big task of pulling this match safely in Canterbury's direction rests with the experience of captain Gary Stead and Chris Harris when they resume batting today. Harris with his first innings 70 is the big prospect for his side, especially with his history of high run scoring at the ground.

The chances are however, that the improved batting conditions of late today could carry over into tomorrow meaning the more runs Canterbury can score the tougher it is going to be for Wellington.

Star of the day was undoubtedly emerging pace bowler Wade Cornelius, who took career-best figures of seven for 53 for 17.3 overs in only his fifth first-class match.

The temperature was up at Rangiora's Dudley Park but that was no reason for the Wellington batting to melt the way it did.

As if going to lunch at 14/3 was not bad enough, the Wellington players lost four more wickets while only 15 runs were scored as Warren Wisneski and Cornelius did their combine harvester impersonation, a not inappropriate comparison in this neck of the woods, by cutting down everything that moved in their path.

They like their duck shooting in North Canterbury but they were in danger of being pulled up for out-of-season infringements as a result of the number of Wellington ducks being shot at Rangiora.

That had to be of little comfort to captain Richard Jones, Selwyn Blackmore, Grant Donaldson, Chris Nevin and Matthew Walker who were all back in the pavilion with none of them having scored a run.

Wisneski bowled with all his customary vigour and bustle while Cornelius found some early swing to go with his pace and in many ways looked like a younger Simon Doull. It was an impressive display from the both, and they have the makings of just the sort of formidable opening combination Canterbury has been seeking.

Canterbury had earlier made the most of some enterprising batting from Paul Wiseman as the innings teetered towards its end, even if he did target CricInfo for some treatment when hitting a six into the scoring and media tent.

While he lost Wisneski and Stephen Cunis, he found a good ally in Cornelius who had a good look at the conditions while helped Wiseman add 35 runs for the last wicket. Wiseman was last man out for 32.

James Franklin ended with four wickets for 60 runs from 26 overs while Andrew Penn took three for 41 and Walker had two for 40.

Wellington had plenty to be thankful for from Franklin and Penn, two unlikely saviours in the normal course of events. But Penn has always been handy with the bat while it was a timely chance for Franklin to demonstrate that he has the potential to develop into a top-flight all-rounder.

Watch this space because he may have plenty of chances to bat this summer if Wellington keeps batting in this fashion.

The pair added 84 runs for the eighth wicket, and most significantly for Wellington they ensured Canterbury would have no cause to invoke the follow-on by taking the score past 93.

Penn was more prepared to belt anything loose and in the process scored 45 runs until the tea break proved his downfall when falling just after the return when trying to pull a ball from Cornelius only to sky it high in the direction of square leg where Brad Doody took the catch.

Franklin batted on, sensibly accumulating runs to the point he scored 38 at which stage he ran out of partners as Cornelius' pace proved too much for Jeetan Patel and Ash Turner.

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