Batsmen are supposed to win State Max matches but somebody forgot to tell the Wellington attack, especially left-arm fast-medium bowler James Franklin.

He was at the core of Wellington's third successive Max success in three years in the preliminary season tournament at North Harbour's Stadium at Albany today when the defending champions beat Auckland by eight runs.

Franklin showed that bowlers do have a role to play in this reduced form of cricket and, in fact, the whole weekend showed that bowlers have learned how to adapt their games. But his was the best of the performances and earned him the player of the tournament title.

Whereas in earlier years scores of 120-140 were much more common, a good score in this year's series was around 90-100.

Andre Adams, Andrew Hore and Richard Petrie were the only big-hitters to really have an impact on matches.

But for Franklin it was an especially pleasant tournament after the disappointments of missing international selection.

"It was good fun. I think the extra game may have benefited us and we were lucky enough to get up over Otago," Franklin said.

"What helped a lot was that the ball held up off a length. We had different plans for different batsmen and I got a few lucky wickets. They seemed to find the fieldsmen on most occasions," he said.

Franklin said he felt he bowled with good rhythm even while bowling within himself and he took the view that every batsman had to be respected and he wanted to keep his runs to about eight or 10 an over, a goal he certainly achieved.

"It was a great way to start the year. We won the Max last year and that proved a good start and now we're looking forward to playing Canterbury in the State Championship in Rangiora," he said.

Wellington beat Auckland by eight runs in a final that turned out to be more exciting than seemed possible, especially after Auckland were 17/5 in the fifth over of the first innings.

Wellington hadn't exactly set the world on fire with 98/6 but it proved a welcome advantage when Auckland were 74/8 at the end of their 10 overs, thanks largely to a hard-hit 25 off 13 balls by Tane Topia.

Auckland bowled much more tidily in their second innings and restricted Wellington to 83/7. Adams took two for 19 from three overs.

That left Auckland with a target of 110 runs to win.

It made the mistake of promoting its big hitters to the top of the order. And while some change was required, the wholesale nature of it didn't seem to help Auckland in the larger scheme of things. They were three wickets down for 15 runs in the second over.

Franklin was irresistible with the ball. In the first innings he took four for 13 from three overs and then in the second innings conceded a six but gained a fourth wicket and saw a run out in his only over. He had five for 21 off four overs in the match and eight wickets for 68 runs off 11 overs in the whole weekend, an outstanding effort at Max level.

There were some moments when Adams threatened to steal the win from nowhere for Auckland by bringing up his half century from 14 balls. But Wellington captain Richard Jones said the superb catch taken at square leg by Shane Battock diving forward to snare the chance from Topia just off the grass had galvanised the side.

"The whole thing about Max is that it can turn so quickly on just one thing. It can be a couple of Max hits, a couple of wickets or something like Shane Battock's catch.

"We knew we had the bowlers to finish the job and we had to have Matthew Walker bowling when Andre was hitting out.

"Having Matthew and Paul Hitchcock at the end was great while having Jimmy Franklin and Andrew Penn to open our attack was a key because they take wickets," he said.

Auckland did recover their second innings to the point where with two overs remaining they only needed 18 runs. But they lost captain Matt Horne caught and bowled to Hitchcock while only four runs were conceded.

And then Walker bowled an outstanding last over which cost only five singles.

Wellington got home by eight runs.

Jones said afterwards that yesterday's loss to Auckland had been a blow to the team and they were very disappointed.

"But it was a good wake-up call for the lads and it was a case of how we would come back against Otago," he said.

They knew Hore was a key man and once they removed him in both innings they felt more in charge.

"Hore can make or break a game, both of Max and one-day games and it will be the same for us in the State Shield," he said.

© CricInfo