Fifteen wickets fell on the first day of the State Championship match between Wellington and Otago at the Basin Reserve and only 212 runs were scored at a trickle more than two per over.

In polite terms, the match was "well advanced" at the end of day one. In other words, batsmen from both sides were gripped by a lemming-like urge to self destruction.

Most preferred the exquisite agony of a slow death to more sudden termination. During Otago's innings of 138, compiled after they had lost the toss, Robbie Lawson batted 61 minutes for 10 runs, Chris Gaffaney 58 minutes for 15, Andrew Hore 37 minutes for six and Neil Rushton 32 minutes for one.

Only Craig Pryor, who made 59 in two hours and seven minutes, mixed longevity and productivity. He was helped by Nathan Morland who made 22 in 103 minutes in a 77-run partnership for the seventh wicket. That stand, measured by the duration of Morland's innings, took Otago from 48/6 to 125/7.

For Wellington, who were 74/5 at stumps in reply, Luke Woodcock batted 65 minutes for 30 but his was a good knock from a player opening the batting in his Firebirds debut.

Selwyn Blackmore batted 103 minutes for 22, Sam Fairley 28 minutes for four, Glynn Howell 15 minutes for one and Grant Donaldson had stayed 48 minutes for eight when stumps were drawn.

From beyond the boundary rope, and in appraising the bare statistics, it was possible to draw the conclusion that the pitch was hostile to batsmen. That summation formed part of Wellington's decision to bowl when stand-in captain Richard Jones won the toss.

But it would be hasty to jump to that conclusion. There were no real fireworks from the pitch today, no venomous bounce or unplayable movement. It is necessary to take into account that Otago have been wrecked by injuries, so much so that they must also have to corner young men in Dunedin pubs on Saturday night and press gang them into rep-team service. Wellington also fielded two new boys under 19.

But that both innings ended in such a shambles was still unaccountable.

Wellington's best bowler was medium pacer Andrew Penn who took 4-45 from 18 overs but who blotted his copybook rather with five wides and who might have been called for several more if the umpires had been feeling ungenerous.

James Franklin took 2-19 from 12 overs but bowled within his best and the perky off-spinner Jeetan Patel took 2-14 from 10.4 overs near the end of the innings. Matthew Walker who would be economical if he won Lotto, took 1-13 from 13 overs.

Among the Otago bowlers, the useful left-armer David Sewell fared best with 2-34 from 10 overs. His mate in a left-arm opening pair, Rushton, bowled a good line but failed to take a wicket in six overs.

Pryor, whose 59 was by far the best batting effort of the day, took 1-7 from nine overs, six of whch were maidens. Then the Otago spinners caused discomfort for Wellington before the close. Morland took 2-11 from eight overs and Rob Smith bowled five overs of exacting leg spin at a cost of two runs. Wellington took only seven runs from the last six overs before stumps.

Again, the spectator beyond the boundary rope would conclude the pitch equally assisted the medium pacers - Penn and Pryor - and the spinners - Patel and Morland.

But it was hard again to perceive the kind of assistance that would have made any of the bowlers unplayable.

There had to be, and there was, a certain amount of bad batsmanship.

Three Otago batsmen, including Pryor, were out lbw without offering a shot. That suggests they were surprised by balls that moved off the seam or in the air but that might be too forgiving of bad batsmanship.

One carries a bat to hit the ball, not to display to the crowd at shoulder height.

There were 18 boundaries in Otago's innings, a healthy percentage of their total, and 10 of those were hit by Pryor so it was possible to play shots and to pierce the field.

Thirty-two of Wellington's 74 runs had also come from fours.

It is hard to say application was lacking when batsman spent so long at the crease for so few runs. Rather, what was lacking was the mixture of application and urgency that only Pryor displayed.

The match, so far advanced after the first day, is now unlikely to last four days. It is a match of considerable importance to Wellington who lie third on the Championship table but only one outright win behind leaders Auckland.

They need to win this match to enlarge their hope of defending their national first-class title and of capturing a grand slam of domestic titles in this season. But they have made that task much harder than it should have been.

The match continues at 10.30am tomorrow.

© CricInfo