Wellington tried to contain the ebullient Chris Harris as their key to beating Canterbury and their failure to do so almost cost them the game.

They held out for a draw with only three wickets left but Harris, with the bat especially, was the dominant performer in the match.

Wellington captain Richard Jones, who scored a century today - his fourth in the calendar year - said: "Canterbury dominated throughout the game and Harry was the dominant figure. He was the key wicket we had to get because they feed off him."

Harris' first innings 70 and his second innings 117 not out proved how futile Wellington's efforts were.

But despite that, there was still a chance of a Wellington win today.

"It needed Grant Donaldson or myself to get through to tea and losing only one of us. That would have meant we had six wickets under our belt but we steadily lost our wickets," he said.

Going into the day he hadn't been looking too far ahead because that created its own pressure and they were just concentrating on biding their time, knowing the runs would come as long as they were there.

Jones was confident that despite the loss of wickets Wellington could hold on because the nature of the pitch was that once in, it was possible to stay in.

Canterbury captain Gary Stead said it was disappointing not to win but there were some encouraging signs from the game.

"We were in a position of maybe winning the match and there were a couple of half chances that we didn't hang onto," he said.

But compared to the performances over the last few years the side had set a benchmark now and had shown it was level, if not ahead, of last year's champions at the moment.

The Cantabrians had created enough chances through pressure bowling, had the benefits of Aaron Redmond and Harris' record partnership and Wade Cornelius' first innings seven-wicket bag.

"Warren Wisneski bowled well throughout and our spinners bowled reasonably well," he said.

Redmond, the leg-spinner, was in an unusual position of being able to attack through longer periods than having to bowl defensively as has often been the case previously.

If the side could learn from the situation it found itself in, it would win more games than it draws in the future.

Stead hadn't been concerned about the morning session when Jones and Donaldson looked like getting Wellington into a position to launch an assault.

"We kept attacking fields and we knew if we could get Jones that would put the brakes on the scoring," he said.

And so it proved.

It was just the lack of normal wear on a pitch four days out, but in reality still about three days old, that had reduced the chances of bowling Wellington out.

© CricInfo